A Little Donation Goes a Long Way

August 2018

When Casey Slemboski was a young teenager, she and her family moved to Rancho Cucamonga from an increasingly crime-ridden Los Angeles neighborhood. Unfortunately, around that same time, Casey’s father was defrauded in a construction deal gone bad.

“Things got better,” Casey remembers, “but it was tight.”

Her father started his own construction business, and her mother took a job at the school district. Their finances steadied, but things were still tight when Casey started looking at colleges.

“At first, I was all set to go to school in Utah, but my mom was like, ‘Don’t count Idaho out,’” Casey says. “We did a tour of campus, and I just kind of liked it better. It felt more personal, like you could actually talk to your professor after class instead of awkwardly standing in a line in a lecture hall to maybe ask a question.”

Casey decided to come to Rexburg. But there was just one piece missing: she needed a little bit of help to cover the costs. “I was completely surprised when I got financial aid,” she says. “A check came in the mail, and I took a selfie with it and sent it to my friends.”

Now, in a place that’s very different than the greater Los Angeles area where she grew up, Casey’s working toward a degree in elementary education with an emphasis in language arts. And thanks to her scholarship, she has a little more time to dedicate to her studies and to the college experience.

“It’s just nice to not have to worry so much about money,” she says. “Neither of my parents graduated from college, and I’m the only one from my family in college right now. It’s nice to know it’s not so much of a burden on my family. I really appreciate the contributions donors make and what it allows me to do.”