Ohio State Alumni and Friends Support the Parkway High School Scholarship Fund

"I have a particular passion for this endeavor. Mercer County is a highly agricultural area in northwest Ohio. The community-at-large, teachers and parents support the schools and have a high regard for education. I grew up knowing that I would go on to school and that education would be the vehicle for greater opportunity for me. Knowing how much the opportunity to pursue higher education has enhanced my own life and helped me attain goals and dreams I never thought possible, I wanted to bring an Ohio State education closer to reality for current and future students from Parkway High School," said Karen.

"My vision is precisely the program Karen described to me. I don't want to write a modest check and ship it 1,800 miles away to see it disappear into a vast pot. I want to watch it go to a real kid. All the better to know the kid came from the place I came from, perhaps with the same fears and anxieties I had in going far away to the big university in the big city. Life is getting tougher for today's generation. Education costs are going up and wages are staying flat. Yet we all know that higher education is essential to making it in today's world," said Jim.

Both Karen and Jim credit Ohio State for helping them get to where they are today. Karen is a graduate of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, MA 1978, and the Moritz College of Law, JD 1991. "My late husband, John Casey, was an Ohio State grad (BS, JD). He was very committed and involved with the university. He joined the President's Club after graduation from law school and served in various alumni functions at the law school. After my graduation from law school, we both became involved in helping with fundraising and other activities. In 2000, we established a planned gift for the Moritz College of Law to fund a faculty chair. In 2004, John was awarded the Gerlach Award for Development Volunteer activities. Since his death, I have taken his place on the law school's National Council and am now an emeritus member. I have also served as a Moritz student mentor. Ohio State has been and continues to be an important part of my life. I'm proud to be a Buckeye and am always available to help the university in any way I can."

Jim is a graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences, BA 1968 and MA 1970. He notes that journalism professor John J. Clarke got him his first reporting job and set his life on course. His newspaper, The East Valley Tribune, is a Pulitzer Prize winner. "My wife is a better Buckeye than me," he said. "She wears her Buckeye beads and Ohio State shirts on game day - no matter that Arizona has been our home for 23 years. She sees someone with an Ohio State sticker parking their car, she stops and chats them up. She sees a snowbird with Michigan plates or shirt and she can't help but tease them. In the fall, she gets out the chocolate and the peanut butter and a cookie sheet and makes buckeyes."

"A number of donations have come in and we have been able to give out several small scholarships, which has been rewarding. It is my hope that donations will still be made to the designated fund for Parkway High School," said Karen. It was Karen and Jim's hope that sharing a connection between Parkway High School and Ohio State would illustrate the need for support of scholarship funding by alums who, because of the education they received at Ohio State, succeeded and want others from their hometown high school to have that opportunity as well.

If you would like to make an impact and support scholarships for students, contact Tiffany Worthington at worthington.72@osu.edu or at 614-292-8158