Achieving that goal starts with the scholarship’s name. It is named for sailing’s “broad reach”, a favorable point of sail to catch the winds that typically moves a boat faster and more comfortably through the water to its destination. As the scholarship name implies, this challenge asks recipients to dedicate themselves to a broad outreach with participation in a variety of activities such as community service, the creative or fine arts, athletics, and student clubs. To enhance their outreach, the recipient must also dedicate themselves to "in-reach" with a commitment to self-growth and character development.
Through this reaching in both directions, they will learn two things. First, the recipient will learn about themselves and others, helping them discover not only their own strengths, but also the help they need from the strength of others. Second, as the recipient acknowledges his or her setbacks, they can use those experiences to adjust their course. As in sailing, they will experience many unforeseen conditions. Through their successful and not-so-successful experiences of outreach and in-reach, these Broad-Reach scholarship recipients can develop the resourcefulness needed to adjust to the changing conditions they will experience throughout their lives.
That is the goal for the Broad-Reach Scholarship. The vision for the Scholarship originates from the original donor’s life experiences at Porter-Gaud and after. That donor attended Porter-Gaud from 1966 to 1975.
Academically, the School gave the donor a great jump-start in college and beyond. After ten years of working for large organizations, he and a business partner started building a technology-based company from scratch with very little money available. A quarter of a century later, the company now employs over thirty people who have very rewarding careers. Through many successes and failures, the company, for their tiny niche, now dominates their market competing against companies that employ thousands of people. One of the biggest achievements for the donor is the challenging and rewarding career opportunities that these efforts have created for the people that work with him. These are truly unique and talented people the company has nurtured.
Through those years of exciting successes and trying failures, the donor realized that he benefited immensely from his Porter-Gaud experience, but also realized that he missed a great deal by not taking full advantage of all the School’s offerings. The donor feels that the path of achievement for the company and its people could have been a much straighter line if he had pursued more of the challenges the School offered.
With the Broad-Reach Scholarship, the donor hopes to bring that experience and challenge to present-day students. But, the recipients of the Scholarship should not be destined for achievements that mirror the donor. Rather, they should be destined for any achievements that enrich their lives and make a difference to others.
