Opportunity of a Lifetime: UNI celebrates 100 Bright Foundation Scholarships, honoring Iowa legacy
Opportunity of a Lifetime: UNI celebrates 100 Bright Foundation Scholarships, honoring Iowa legacy
This past year, the University of Northern Iowa marked the awarding of its 100th Bright Foundation scholarship, a remarkable milestone in a partnership with the foundation established by Iowa natives Lois and Dale Bright.
Since 2012, the Bright scholarship has unlocked the promise of a UNI education for students like Averee Kasik, a biology major and a native of Mechanicsville, Iowa. With the support of the scholarship, Kasik was able to shift her career focus from medicine to teaching — a path that felt truer to her goals.
"The Bright scholarship gave me stability, ” Kasik said. “It gave me the confidence to pursue my passion without having to worry about the financial burden.”
Dedicated to Helping Iowans
Lois and Dale Bright, who grew up in the small, southern Iowa community of Lineville, established their foundation to support students with limited financial means in their pursuit of higher education. The Brights saw education as a way for Iowans to create better lives and make meaningful contributions to their communities.
Meredith Dohmen, president of the Bright Foundation, said the goal of the Bright Scholarship is to allow students to “graduate on-time, debt-free, prepared to launch their career and give back.”
“While the Bright Foundation has given to a variety of causes since 1957, our exclusive focus on scholarships now allows us to have a direct impact on individual recipients and their families,” Dohmen said. “We are so proud of the network of Bright Scholars who leverage the scholarship to reach their personal goals by accessing the opportunities the university offers. We can’t think of a better legacy for Lois and Dale Bright than the remarkable young people we get to know through the Bright Scholars program.”
Kasik recalled the moment she found out she had won the scholarship — an email notification that caught her by surprise while sitting in her high school chemistry class. Overcome with emotion, she raced down the hall to tell her father, who teaches mathematics at the school, and the two shared a joyful moment.
“My whole life, I had worked so hard, and in that instance it felt like all that effort had finally paid off,” she said.
Kasik has taken full advantage of UNI’s renowned teacher education program, with mentorship from nationally recognized faculty and abundant opportunities to gain hands-on experience working in area schools. She will begin student teaching in Ankeny next semester.
Kasik said the scholarship’s programmatic offerings have fostered a sense of belonging among her and her fellow Bright scholars.
“The community that we formed allowed me to fall apart at some times, and I always knew that I would be put back together and that everyone was rooting for me to succeed,” she said. “My favorite thing about being a Bright Scholar is hearing other people’s stories — we may all come from different backgrounds, and have faced different hardships, but we have this scholarship in common and we can fall back on one another when we need to.”
UNI’s Bright scholars are part of a legacy envisioned by Lois and Dale Bright: a network of resilient students united by shared experiences and a drive to make a difference. The 100 Bright scholars at UNI embody both the individual potential and collective impact of the Brights’ investment in Iowa’s future.
