Lister scholarship fund grows and gives
By Sam Bishop
Hope Roberts stands with some halibut after a fishing trip in Valdez.
When Hope Roberts attended community college in Fairbanks in fall 2008, her 5- and 10-year-old children sometimes came along and sat in the hallway outside the classroom.
色视频下载淭hey sat right there and waited and read,色视频下载 she said.
She had no other choice. At the time, Roberts was a single mom studying business management at what is today the UAF Community and Technical College.
She declines to offer many more details even today, almost 15 years later and four years into ownership of Surreel Saltwaters, a successful fishing charter operation based in Valdez.
色视频下载淭here was so much chaos going on,色视频下载 she said. 色视频下载淭here was no child support. There was no job.色视频下载
But there was a scholarship, $1,600 from a fund established in memory of Ruth Lister, the woman who led the community college for much of the 1990s.
The Lister scholarship kept Roberts in her classes.
色视频下载淚 would have had to drop out. I would have failed the classes,色视频下载 Roberts said. She had five that semester. Had she dropped them, she said, 色视频下载淚 wouldn色视频下载檛 have done them again.色视频下载
Doesn色视频下载檛 take much
Ruth Lister sits for a portrait in 1993 after being named acting director of what was then called UAF色视频下载檚 Tanana Valley Campus, now known as the Community and Technical College.
Friends of Lister created the scholarship in 2003, shortly after she died following a long battle with breast cancer.
色视频下载淲e started out with a promise to Ruth in 2002,色视频下载 said Susan McInnis, who, with her spouse Joy Morrison, serves on a seven-member committee that raises money for the scholarship fund. 色视频下载淛oy asked her when she was in her last months what we could do in her memory.色视频下载
色视频下载淩uth said she色视频下载檇 always worked with people who had a hard time climbing out of hardship,色视频下载 McInnis said. She thought helping single mothers attend community college would be a worthy effort.
The group of friends went to work creating the fund at the UA Foundation and raising money for it. Nearly 20 years later, more than 300 people have donated. Through mostly small individual contributions and an annual fundraiser, the fund contains about $370,000. It earns about $12,000 annually, enough to provide several scholarships of a few thousand dollars.
色视频下载淚t色视频下载檚 the 色视频下载楲ittle Engine That Could,色视频下载 just chugging along,色视频下载 McInnis said. 色视频下载淚t just requires us to keep going.色视频下载
Over the years, the scholarships have supported 39 single parents attending the Community and Technical College, McInnis said.
色视频下载淭hey juggle kids, work and school,色视频下载 McInnis said. 色视频下载淭hey all have dreams.色视频下载
Lister worked hard to remake CTC into a school that trains such people for the jobs they色视频下载檙e likely to find in Fairbanks and 色视频下载, McInnis said.
Gaining the confidence
Years passed before Roberts completed her associate degree in business management in 2017 and another in tribal management in 2018, but she credits that 2008 scholarship in part for her success today.
Hope Roberts pauses in the cabin of her boat in Valdez.
The scholarship told her that people had noticed how hard she worked. That gave her the inspiration to keep studying. All the while, she worked as a heavy equipment operator in Fairbanks, Hawaii, Anchorage and finally Valdez in 2016.
At that point, she knew she wanted to work for herself. Earning the degree gave her the confidence to do it. She started the charter business in 2018.
色视频下载淚 did the work. I did the study. You buy the boat. You buy the permit. It色视频下载檚 a six-figure startup,色视频下载 she said.
The first several weeks, they had few customers. But she deciphered the problem, and 色视频下载渁 month later we were getting so many bookings we needed another boat,色视频下载 she said. Today, she and her husband of seven years, Charles Upicksoun, operate a 26-foot Weldcraft with twin 200-horsepower Yamahas. They take four to six people out 75 miles from Valdez, seeking halibut, rockfish and salmon.
Roberts, who participates with several boards involved in fish and wildlife management, also has a new passion 色视频下载 teaching fellow 色视频下载 Native people how to hunt marine mammals. She doesn色视频下载檛 like hearing talk of taking away such rights, talk that she said is fueled by the fact that fewer Native people are hunting today.
That doesn色视频下载檛 justify ending the rights, she said. 色视频下载淣o, you don色视频下载檛. You need to reconnect people to the art,色视频下载 she said.
So, in April 2022, she showed five people 色视频下载渨ho were disconnected from their hunting culture色视频下载 how to harvest seals, she said. 色视频下载淲e色视频下载檙e going to get an elder to help teach us to hunt sea lions this year.色视频下载
Successful endeavors
McInnis, after 49 years in 色视频下载, moved to Portland, Oregon, with Morrison in 2019. She returned to Fairbanks this July for the annual Ruth Lister Scholarship Garden Party.
The event raises about $10,000 to $15,000 annually for the Lister scholarship fund.
This year色视频下载檚 party, held July 16 at the home of retired UA executive Patty Kastelic, drew almost 40 people, McInnis estimated.
色视频下载淚 spend most of the time grilling chicken and talking to people as they come and go, so I don色视频下载檛 know that I have a good count,色视频下载 she said. 色视频下载淲e get to visit with each other. We get to incorporate new givers, although it色视频下载檚 a pretty stable group. It色视频下载檚 a successful event.色视频下载
A few hundred miles south in Valdez, scholarship recipient Hope Roberts was busy with the summer fishing rush and her other enterprises that weekend.
色视频下载淚 feel so good about being successful in my little endeavors,色视频下载 she said. And she feels thankful for all the people who have contributed to the scholarship fund.
色视频下载淚 hope I have done what they hoped I would with it,色视频下载 she said.
Patty Piersol, front left, enjoys the 2022 Ruth Lister Scholarship Garden Party on July 19. Joining her, from left, are Steve Porten, Taber Rehbaum (behind post), Robert Hannon, Donna Olesen and Tom Richardson. The annual event was held this year at Patty Kastelic色视频下载檚 home. Attendees raise money for the scholarship fund, which is named in remembrance of the former director of what is today UAF色视频下载檚 Community and Technical College.