STARKVILLE – Only one person submitted a college scholarship application to the Starkville Area Arts Council in 2017, the year John W. Bateman became executive director.
That person later withdrew the application.
No one asked Bateman about college scholarships again until Oct. 21, when he updated Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors on SAAC programs. District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams raised the topic when Bateman told the board about the growth of SAAC’s summer scholarship program for youth from 11-18 years old.
The money previously used for college scholarships — between $5,000 and $6,000 per year — was added to the summer scholarship program in 2018, which has almost doubled in recipients since then. SAAC awarded scholarships to 26 applicants this year and 18 in 2018 after “hovering around 15” before the college scholarship money was reallocated, Bateman said. Unlike the one-time college scholarships, the summer scholarships can be spread out over several summers.
Only five or six incoming college students at a time received scholarships of around $1,000 when the program still had applicants, Bateman said.
“A thousand dollars for college does not go very far,” he said. “But if we give away that same $1,000 across four summers, $250 per summer, we have then helped a kid at an earlier age, consecutively and consistently.”
Recipients of the summer scholarships enroll in arts camps and programs of their choosing, most often Summer Scholars on Stage, a theater writing and production camp held annually at Mississippi State University. Twelve of last year’s 26 recipients went to Summer Scholars, Bateman said.
Other programs include the Mississippi Lions Band, the Mississippi School of the Arts, the Controllers 4-H Club Summer Camp, the American Ballet Theatre and the Southeastern Summer Theatre Institute.
Many of the applicants for summer scholarships do not ask for much money but would not have been able to afford these programs without it, Bateman said.
“I don’t feel that any applicant is being greedy,” he said. “I feel like they’re being conscientious of the fact that this is a limited scholarship and they’re asking for what they need.”
Summer Scholars on Stage director Joe Ray Underwood agreed with Bateman that the college scholarships did not cover much of the cost for college, especially when college tuition amounts have increased and the scholarship amounts stayed mostly stagnant.
“With Summer Scholars and with some of the camps, $300 or $400 does make a difference,” Underwood said. “A lot of the kids might go to a five-day art camp, or they might go to a day program that is not as expensive as a residence program.”
Summer Scholars on Stage is an immersive camp that challenges participants to create an original work of theater in the span of two or three weeks. Bateman is in charge of the writing program and is “an integral part of Summer Scholars,” Underwood said.
Bateman said he hopes SAAC can give away 50 scholarships in the future, but the council would need more funds for that. SAAC receives annual grants from the county, the city, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the city arts commission. SAAC has also received one-time grants from nonprofits including Starkville Bridges Out of Poverty and from Starkville-Oktibbeha Achieving Results (SOAR).
Grants make up about 35 percent of SAAC’s budget, Bateman said at the supervisors meeting last week.
Another benefit to channeling the funds to programs for middle and high school-age students is that college scholarships were given to those studying an artistic field, Bateman said. The summer scholarship program reaches people who might not have definite career aspirations in the arts.
“It underscores our belief that arts education isn’t just for artists,” Bateman said. “It’s for everybody. It creates well-rounded problem solvers and creative thinkers. It’s going to people who might have a wide variety of interests. These kids might be interested in becoming engineers or astronauts or doctors or accountants. We don’t know where they’re going, so we really are reaching a broader audience.”
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