Giving back to the community comes in many different forms. For Keith Harvey and the Friends and Alumni of McClellan Foundation, giving back includes scholarships to seniors at Southwest High School in Little Rock.
Harvey, a ‘94 graduate of McClellan High School, co-founded the group in 2017 before the school’s closure. He said that after Southwest High School was built, it was important to remember the history of the area and recognize the seniors for their hard work. The group — three others join Harvey on the foundation board — started rewarding students in 2018, and in the short time since, a total $14,000 of scholarship money has been given to recognize seniors’ accomplishments.
“There’s not always the parent and community support [at Southwest High School] for various reasons — and not always the long traditions that some schools have in our city as well,” Harvey said. “We wanted to help continue those traditions, strengthen those traditions and build new traditions, too.”
Come Tuesday morning, four outstanding students at Southwest High School will receive those fun oversized checks for $1,000 to be spent any way they like. The scholarships don’t require seniors to choose college after high school, Harvey said. Instead, they’re rewarded for the things they’ve already accomplished.
“Sometimes students don’t just need money to pay for books or pay for tuition,” Harvey said. “They need money to get their car repaired so that they can get to and from work. They can buy some new clothes for themselves so that they feel confident going into a new campus or something.”
Harvey said the scholarship is also about trust. Life brings a lot of different demands, and if the money can help with those demands, then that’s how Harvey and the foundation members want it to be used. Building community by supporting Southwest High School is a good way to show that even though the old McClellan school closed, there’s still a large group of people who support students in the area.
Students are selected based on their academics — at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA is required — a personal essay and a letter of recommendation. Members of the FAM Foundation give a presentation to the students about what the scholarship entails. Harvey said this builds rapport and relationships with the students as well.
“What we stress about these scholarships is that they are only available to seniors at Little Rock Southwest,” Harvey said. There is no national, state or even district-wide competition.
Every year is different for rewards based on what funds are available, and twice the foundation has also awarded teachers. This money, too, can be spent however the teacher sees fit.
Looking ahead, Harvey said he hopes the FAM Foundation will grow to give increased rewards or more scholarships. He also hopes to introduce internship opportunities. He said he wants to keep in contact with the students who are rewarded and work with them professionally with networking opportunities.
“At the end of the day, it’s about the students,” Harvey said. “It’s about acknowledging them, seeing them and showing them that they have people out there rooting for them.”
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