As we put another year behind us, we are excited to share the latest updates from the Kuskokwim Educational Foundation (KEF).
In the 2023-2024 school year, KEF awarded a total of $70,000.00 in scholarships to 52 Shareholder students! These scholarships have supported students pursuing higher education, workforce development, and cultural training. We are thrilled to see many of our recipients making strides in their academic and professional journeys, and we remain committed to helping them achieve their goals.
2024 KEF FALL SILENT AUCTION
The annual KEF silent auction is one of KEF’s largest fundraising events. The online auction allows people to bid on variety of items donated by local individuals and businesses. One hundred percent of the proceeds from this auction go directly to helping our Shareholder students achieve their education, career and cultural learning goals.
This year’s online auction was held Oct. 23-30. Instead of hosting the auction on Facebook, we used an online auction platform, charityauction.com, which allowed people to participate in the auction without a Facebook account. It went very well and we will continue to utilize this online platform in the future.
We had a total of 40 items available for auction this year and we raised a total of $5,068! Quyana cakneq to everyone who donated in the auction and bid on items. Every dollar makes a difference for our Shareholder students!
Personal & professional development and Cultural learning scholarship
In addition to continuing education scholarships, KEF offers a non-traditional scholarship for Professional and Personal Development and Cultural Learning. This scholarship is available to Shareholders who are interested in non-degree learning opportunities that may improve employability, enhance personal life skills and provide cultural connection and enrichment.
We provided a total of 17 cultural learning scholarships this year so Shareholders could attend our Baby Mukluk Making Class in Aniak and our Qaspeq Making Class in Anchorage.
We didn’t provide any personal or professional scholarships in 2024. If you are interested in applying for our Personal and Professional Development Scholarship, some examples of learning opportunities we may be able to help fund include (but are not limited to):
- Personal finance, money management, or budgeting classes
- Cooking, meal prep, or nutrition classes
- Parenting classes
- Leadership training
- Small business training
- Earning a career-related license or certificate
- Attending a career-related conference or workshop
To learn more about KEF’s scholarship opportunities and to apply, please visit kefalaska.org.
