MENASHA (NBC) — Scholarships helped Holly Hartung, a 2008 Menasha High School graduate, attend the University of Wisconsin in Madison and earn a degree in journalism and German. Now she is paying it forward to help other students.
When she had to cancel travel plans this year because of the pandemic, she decided to establish the Holly M. Hartung Scholarship Fund with a gift of just over $1,000, the minimum required for a future fund at the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.
“Rather than just sit on the money, I wanted to do something positive and I also wanted to do something long-term,” she says. At $15,000, her fund will be able to award scholarships. Holly promised herself she would reach that level by age 40. She has set up automatic monthly donations to make sure she meets that goal.
Holly now works with major donors fundraising for the College of Education and Human Development on the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota.
“I think it’s been a thread that’s been woven through my life in ways that I didn’t notice until I sat and thought about it,” Holly says. “It was just a muscle you exercised. It’s a habit. You get into it throughout your life and you don’t always know where it came from.”
Her scholarship will support a Menasha High School graduate, not necessarily a 4.0 student, but one who works to his or her highest potential. She envisions someone in whom a teacher or counselor sees some hidden potential.
