Chahta Foundation scholarship recipients for 2014 were honored at a banquet in Durant on Wednesday. Honorees included Tamara Bolding, Jordan Dennis, Naomi Hixson and Susan Wyant. (Photo by ZACH MAXWELL)
Chahta Foundation presents awards to four scholars
Post-graduate students hailed as future leaders of Choctaw Nation By ZACH MAXWELL Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
DURANT, Okla. – The Chahta Foundation presented scholarships totaling $72,000 to four post-graduate students at a luncheon on Wednesday in their honor. One Master’s Degree student and three doctoral candidates were honored at the event, which was attended by Chahta Foundation staff and board members, family of the honorees as well as incoming Southeastern Okla. State Univ. President Sean Burrage.
Doctoral candidates receiving $20,000 were Jordan Dennis of Oklahoma City, who is studying law at the University of Oklahoma; Naomi Hixson of Tempe, Ariz., a speech-language pathologist studying at Arizona State Univ.; and Tamara Bolding of Los Angeles, a psychology major at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Susan Wyant of Purcell, Okla., received $12,000 toward a Master’s Degree in Education at Southwest Oklahoma State University. She is studying the field of psychometry.
“I hope that, with my degree, I can give back to our Choctaw family and to Oklahoma,” Wyant told the gathering. “I couldn’t do it without you.” Golding began her short speech by saying “yakoke,” (“Thank you” in Choctaw) and said “It’s been a very incredible journey.”
“Success is so much sweeter when we use it to have meaning in our lives and the lives of others,” said Stacy Shepherd, director of the Chahta Foundation and Senior Executive Officer of Tribal Member Services for the Choctaw Nation. “Somewhere down the road, I know each one of you is going to help someone in need.”
Jon Marshall, chairman of the Chahta Foundation Board of Directors, echoed those sentiments.
“It’s an honor for us to have an opportunity to invest in future leaders,” Marshall said. “One of the predicates of these people receiving an award has been each one’s commitment to humanity. They’re all doing things in terms of helping people.” The Chahta Foundation was formed in 2000 and began awarding educational scholarships in 2013. The foundation has given $174,000 in scholarships in two years.
The foundation’s triumvirate mission includes “creating scholarships for Choctaws, preserving a rich heritage and sharing it with all people and promoting a healthy approach to living.”
For more information, visit online at Chahta Foundation.