Change people's lives at home and around the world
January 2024
In 2012, Scott Spendlove was serving as a stake president in San Antonio, Texas, when he was invited to a meeting to learn about an education program from BYU-Idaho that was coming to his area: Pathway.
“I was really excited for what they were saying about the opportunities it would present,” Scott recalls. “We had a lot of youth in the stake who were having a hard time getting into BYU, BYU-Idaho, or any good school.”
At that time, the Pathway program (now called PathwayConnect) was relatively new. After a trial period, Scott received a report on the program’s effect in San Antonio.
“I was amazed by the broader reach it was having in our community,” says Scott. “The people who were benefiting the most from Pathway were not the 18- and 19-year-old young adults. They were single moms who were trying to make a better life for themselves and their children. They were people with employment resource issues who needed advanced degrees.”
For two and a half years, Scott and his wife, Kariane, witnessed firsthand the tremendous effect that Pathway had on individuals and families in their stake. When the Spendloves were called to serve as mission leaders for the Utah Salt Lake City Mission in 2015, they began to see Pathway working on a new level.
By that time, Pathway had expanded internationally. The Spendloves worked with missionaries from all over the world, and they heard from many returned missionaries who enrolled in BYU-Pathway in their home countries.
“It has been a tremendous blessing for them to gain an education that they may not have had otherwise,” says Scott.
In 2017 the Pathway program became a new Church entity, BYU-Pathway Worldwide, and continued to expand at a rapid pace. Having seen BYU-Pathway bless families in San Antonio and returned missionaries all over the world, the Spendloves were inspired to help extend those blessings to more people by making a planned gift to BYU-Pathway.
“The Lord has blessed us with more than we need and more than our kids need. And we wanted to be part of something that would bless as many lives as possible.”
“The Lord has blessed us with more than we need and more than our kids need,” says Kariane. “And we wanted to be part of something that would bless as many lives as possible.”
Scott adds, “We thought, prayed, and pondered about where to leave it, and we felt very good about BYU-Pathway.” So, the Spendloves chose to include BYU-Pathway as a beneficiary in their estate plan.
Kariane further explains their motivations: “We wanted our kids to go to Church schools because we wanted them to have a gospel foundation and become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. With BYU-Pathway, a lot of people can have this learning experience that marries the gospel with higher education.”
In addition to its faith-based approach to education, another aspect of BYU-Pathway that inspired the Spendloves to give is the effect the institution has on future generations.
“I think about the single moms who are trying to better themselves,” says Scott. “BYU-Pathway benefits them and their kids. Helping children have a better start in life is really valuable and important to us. When you consider the multigenerational impact it will have, an investment in BYU-Pathway is an investment that will pay off in compounding ways.”
The Spendloves have adopted the same multigenerational mindset when it comes to their own family. While their estate plan includes an inheritance for each of their children and grandchildren, it also leaves each of them with a donor advised fund. These accounts are set up solely for charitable giving, and they allow each child or grandchild to decide how they want to donate these funds. “We’re hoping that the example we’re setting will inspire them to give as well,” says Scott.
To learn about how you can make a planned gift to BYU-Pathway Worldwide, email giftplanning@ChurchofJesusChrist.org, visit our web page about planned giving, or call 877-650-5377.
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