Donna K. Smith Memorial Scholarship Fund
Donation protected
Donna Smith was a leader and mentor in laboratory science. As a supervisor and then laboratory manger at the Iowa City VA, Donna led with vision, acuity and finesse. She exuded a kind and gentle spirit and had unwavering support and encouragement for those she supervised. She was also a strong advocate for students striving to become laboratory scientists. Donna served on the board for the Kirkwood Community College Medical Laboratory Technologist (MLT) training program, and she was instrumental in the training of hundreds of laboratory science students over the years. Our friend was tragically killed in an automobile accident on Sunday, December 23, 2018. We are raising money to fund the Donna K Smith Memorial Scholarship to be used for students enrolled in the MLT program at Kirkwood Community College.
GoFundMe is asking that I add more about my personal link to Donna before they will disperse money. I'm not exactly sure why this matters, as I am one of a large group responsible for this effort, but here goes. As most of you know, I worked very closely with Donna at the Iowa City VA. We collectively led the clinical microbiology service for many years, and as she was promoted to lab manager, we worked together daily on many initiatives for the ICVA clinical lab. We were 'partners in crime' without any of the crime :-) As stated in my last update, all funds from this effort are being initially deposited into the Donna K Smith Scholarship Fund account at Collins Credit Union of Cedar Rapids, IA. From there, once we have reached a total of $15,000, all money will be directly given to a new endowed Donna K Smith Scholarship Fund at Kirkwood Community College through the Kirkwood Foundation. Once established there, future donations will be directed directly to this fund through the Kirkwood Foundation. Scholarships from this fund will be dispersed annually to a second year student in the MLT training program at Kirkwood as outlined above. The amount of the scholarship will depend on the size of the fund. Initially, with a $15K endowment, it will be a $750 annual scholarship. However, the annual disbursement of scholarship money comes from dividends, not the $15K. Future donations will grow the endowment and increase the amount of money awarded each year to the scholarship recipient.
GoFundMe is asking that I add more about my personal link to Donna before they will disperse money. I'm not exactly sure why this matters, as I am one of a large group responsible for this effort, but here goes. As most of you know, I worked very closely with Donna at the Iowa City VA. We collectively led the clinical microbiology service for many years, and as she was promoted to lab manager, we worked together daily on many initiatives for the ICVA clinical lab. We were 'partners in crime' without any of the crime :-) As stated in my last update, all funds from this effort are being initially deposited into the Donna K Smith Scholarship Fund account at Collins Credit Union of Cedar Rapids, IA. From there, once we have reached a total of $15,000, all money will be directly given to a new endowed Donna K Smith Scholarship Fund at Kirkwood Community College through the Kirkwood Foundation. Once established there, future donations will be directed directly to this fund through the Kirkwood Foundation. Scholarships from this fund will be dispersed annually to a second year student in the MLT training program at Kirkwood as outlined above. The amount of the scholarship will depend on the size of the fund. Initially, with a $15K endowment, it will be a $750 annual scholarship. However, the annual disbursement of scholarship money comes from dividends, not the $15K. Future donations will grow the endowment and increase the amount of money awarded each year to the scholarship recipient.
Organizer
J. Stacey Klutts
Organizer
Iowa City, IA
