The First Scholarship Recipient

Congratulations to Liam Schroth, the first recipient of the Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship!

We are very excited to have the first scholarship recipient named. My father and sister will be there when Liam is honored at the Davis Senior High School Senior Awards Night on Tuesday, May 30 at the Richard Brunelle Theater. His story is one of finding your passion and speaks to how important it is to keep sailing even when conditions aren't the best for you.

Liam attended Fairfield School from 2004-2008. Mrs Neu was his teacher for K-1 and he had Mrs Ryan for 2-3. Liam's brother Adam also attended Fairfield from 2006-2010, which shows that Liam's parents Brian Schroth and Leslie Anastassatos were Fairfield fans. Liam certainly was: 

“Fairfield was the most intimate school I ever attended. I doubt I’ll every experience running around in a large field with hundreds of kids whose names I know all of again at any other school. This was always a tradition at community events at the school. Everyone would run out on the grass field and play tag or any other game that everybody could participate in equally.”

Asked about how a teacher made a difference in his life, Liam noted the following:

“Mrs Neu was determined not to let any single student feel left behind or waiting ahead. She didn’t compromise to one-size-fits-all standards. When we were learning to read, we would sit down with a book and try to learn until we knew enough words to read it ourselves. We weren’t sitting in rows of desks in a dungeon reading until we met the requirements; we sat down and read what she believed we could read. . . . When I excelled at reading faster than most of the kids in the class, Mrs Neu didn’t tell me to wait or to ‘hang out’ and enjoy being ahead. She simply gave me another book and sent me back to my seat. This method of teaching taught me that I can do anything and that the limits teachers will place on my learning environment can never truly stifle someone with genuine enthusiasm.”
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Mrs Neu would surely be proud to see that Liam was able to embrace learning with enthusiasm even after experiencing challenges with his learning environment.  

“Throughout high school, I learned that I am not the kind of person who high school was designed with in mind. I found that the traditional classroom environment doesn’t suit me as well as some other learning styles and that I don’t always have the same motivation as those around me. . . . While most of the students in my class found their groove and started pumping out A’s before high school started, it took me several years to find mine, and I’ve learned a lot about myself in the process. Over the years, I’ve accepted that that’s alright and that once I find something that truly motivates me, it’ll all get easier.”

Upon graduation from Davis Senior High School, Liam plans to major in computer science after recently discovering a passion for computers by learning to create home servers to stream music and host games from some old computers lying around his house. He taught himself how to set them up using online tutorials and this led to taking programming, network and server administration courses at Sacramento City College. He plans to attend Sonoma State University after graduation. Liam is looking forward to college as an environment to meet new people and apply what he has learned about himself.

Liam already has a sense for the type of job he wants after college:

“I have had the chance to evaluate what kind of work I prefer: what exhausts me more, what is more fulfilling, what is the least monotonous.”

Liam is also enthusiastic about sailing. He learned to sail in local sailing clubs (Lake Washington and Stonegate) and participated in summer programs to help the instructors. This has led to him being named lead instructor for both sailing clubs this summer. It has always been his dream to work with sailboats in the bay area and he hopes to find a sailing job while in college. 

“While I love computers and want to become as employable as possible in that industry, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for sailing.”

There is a lot in Liam's application that makes him a great choice for the first Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship. Liam, we hope it helps you find some wind at your back, but don't ever lose your courage to sail into headwinds. 

 

Charting Screen Time

When I was growing up screen time was exclusively TV, but an effort was still made to limit it. 

Here Mrs Neu describes her screen time limiting techniques: 

“Each day I make a chart for each child. If he wants to watch cartoons, I point out what other programs he likes to watch that day and ask him how much time he wants to use up. We mark on the chart and I tell him when the time his up....I try to help them evaluate the quality of the programs by sitting down with them afterward to write what they liked about what they saw.”
— Surviving Parenthood, By Lucy Robertson (aka Mrs Neu)

I was kept busy writing about "Lost in Space" instead of watching it (missing the fact that about all that changes is the scenery and the type of enemy). Imagine doing this today with video games like "The Legend of Zelda."

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Speaking of Lost in Space:

Boost the Mrs Neu Fund To $50K

Join us, if you can, in pushing the fund to $50,000. We will match all donations made until we reach a $50,000 fund balance through March 30, 2017.

As excited as we are to be awarding a $1,000 Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship this year, we still want to do more. Pushing the fund balance over $50,000 would get us close to being able to double the scholarship or the scholarship amount next year. 

Supporting the alumni of Fairfield Elementary School 

Supporting the alumni of Fairfield Elementary School 

To donate, click on the donate button below and select the YCF - Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship from the "Please use my donation for" dropdown list. Or, send a check payable to the same to: 

Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship Fund of Yolo Community Foundation
c/o Sacramento Region Community Foundation
955 University Avenue, Suite A
Sacramento, CA 95825 

Thank you for your support!

 

 

Help Move the Scholarship Fund to $50,000

Mrs Neu's birthday is March 19, next Sunday, and she would have turned 77. We are also coming on a year from her passing on March 30.

Join us, if you can, in pushing the fund to $50,000 in recognition of these milestones. We will match all donations made until we reach a $50,000 fund balance through March 30, 2017.

As excited as we are to be awarding a $1,000 Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship this year, we still want to do more. Pushing the fund balance over $50,000 would get us close to being able to double the scholarship or the scholarship amount next year. 

The fund balance currently stands at $35,114.01, with gifts to date of $34,865. This puts us just under $15,000 from a $50,000 goal.

This is the fund summary as of March 9, 2017 (with the 2017 scholarship grant paid out).

This is the fund summary as of March 9, 2017 (with the 2017 scholarship grant paid out).

To donate, click on the donate button below and select the YCF - Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship from the "Please use my donation for" dropdown list. Or, send a check payable to the same to: 

Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship Fund of Yolo Community Foundation
c/o Sacramento Region Community Foundation
955 University Avenue, Suite A
Sacramento, CA 95825 

Thank you for your support!

 
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Ideals, Values, Morals

This column from Lucy Roberson, aka Mrs Neu, contains an important paragraph at the end. 

“The example I give as a person is going to be one of the guides for my children as they develop their ideals, values, morals . . . My example will be one of the guides they will use as they develop their own self-concepts . . . This scares me, but I find it an exciting responsibility too. ”

It is the way she lives on in us and the way we will live on in the children we guide to follow our example. 

 

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More Scholarship Details and Application

Following a conversation this week with Julie Clayton of the Davis Senior High School Career Center (who is helping administer the scholarship award; thanks, Julie), we have some additional details to share about the $1,000 Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship.

First, applications are due on April 7, 2017.  As noted before, applications can be picked up at the Davis Senior High School Career Center, 315 W 14th St, Davis, CA 95616 or you may use the application below. 

In order to ensure your application is received for processing, Julie suggests that you bring it to her in person by the deadline. 

Given the Davis Senior High School Career Center's administration of the 2017 award, recipients will be limited to high school seniors at Davis Senior High or Leonardo da Vinci High School in Davis, CA. 

The scholarship award selection will be made on April 18-19 and the recipient will be notified thereafter, or by the end of April. Official recognition will occur at the Davis Senior High School Senior Awards Night on May 30, 2017.  

The Application is available in the Box folder below, both as a simple pdf and a pdf form.

If you are unable to access Box, these files are also on Dropbox here. 

Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship Available Now!

Updated details can be found here.

We are pleased to announce that the Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship is live! A scholarship of $1,000 is available to be awarded this year. Applications are currently available at the Davis Senior High School's Career Center. You can also contact Julie Clayton for more details: jclayton@djusd.net

The Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship supports alumni of Fairfield Elementary School in the Davis Joint Unified School District in their pursuit of a degree from an accredited college; university; or technical, trade or vocational school. 

To be eligible, you must have attended Fairfield Elementary School and be a high school senior; a current undergraduate or graduate school student; a high school graduate pursuing a technical, trade, or vocational school; or an adult re-entry student. 

The application will have full details on the application process, which includes a personal essay on your favorite Fairfield memory and future goals, a letter of recommendation and transcripts that also confirm your attendance at Fairfield.

To get the scholarship awards started, we have asked the Davis High School Scholarship Committee to make the impartial selection this year. Their selection will be made based on academic potential and merit, the personal essay, the letter of recommendation and the number of years the applicant attended Fairfield.

We will update you with more details soon. 

Thanks again to everyone who has supported the Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship Fund to make this possible!

  

The Letter Writer

Mrs Neu was a letter writer. Even with technology making it easier to text, the handwritten letter still carries weight. 

One of the reasons Mrs Neu liked to write letters is they created a bond between her and the recipient. 

Here is how she described her letter writing in a piece for her writing class:

“I’ve been the letter writer in my family since we moved from the mountains to Stockton when I was 10. I kept up corresponding with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and many cousins through the years. There are only a handful of Portola cousins left because so many relatives have died.

But I have added some moved away neighbors of thirty, forty years ago, a couple of college friends, and a dozen school families that have never given me up. I write regularly to five German families we have visited in Germany over the last twenty-five years. They don’t understand my English and I don’t understand their German. I save their letters until I can get one of my sons to translate. At least we know that we are thinking of each other!

When I was sixteen, I wrote to Grandpa Patterson every day for a year. He was in a sanitarium in Glendale, Colorado suffering from TB. Grandma saved the letters in a scrapbook and gave it to me when he died.

Before we were married, I wrote to Dennis almost every day while he was in the army stationed in Germany. Over 1000 letters! Fortunately, he wrote back.

Last week, I got an email from a cousin in Maine. She was putting away her Christmas cards and didn;t see one from me. “Are you ok?” she asked. I think she thought I had died! Though I have only seen her three times, our letters have kept a bond between us.

Now I have been busy sending out Valentine notes. Only thirty-four this year!”

Unfortunately, the bonds break when the life of the recipient or the letter writer ends. But then the letters live on. I wish I had kept more from my mother.  

Mom is in Washington

With all the focus on Washington and the new administration, I was reminded of the turbulent political environment that existed when I became politically aware as a child. President Nixon, Watergate and the impeachment hearings were a constant on the television. 

Lucy Robertson, aka Mrs Neu, captured this time in her column: 

“Friday morning one of the news commentators covering the impeachment proceedings on television announced: ‘You are watching one of the most important events in our history.’ And I thank him for that—it helped convince my three angry children, who wanted to watch Captain Kangaroo, that I have a good purpose for sitting entranced in front of the TV.”
— Surviving Parenthood, Mrs Neu's column.

Eventually, Mrs Neu convinced us that Mr Green Jeans wasn't as important.  We let her watch all the talk going on in Washington.

Watching the Nixon impeachment hearings took precedence over Mr Green Jeans.

This even led one of us to say to a friend: "My Mom's not here, she's in Washington."

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Playing in the Street Under Home Rules

When we were kids, many of our activities took place in the street. Fortunately, we lived on a street that did not get much traffic. This column from Lucy Robertson (aka Mrs Neu) shows an interesting parenting tension of having children close to home and in view, albeit playing in the relative danger of the street, versus out of sight at the park.

The advantage of being in front of your home is that "home rules" or the "family's rules" of expected behavior apply. 

“What behavior I expect from my children, I expect from any children who happen to be at my house. I make it clear that everyone is welcome to play and make it clear just what behavior is acceptable to me as it occurs.

So far, no mother has become irate about my sending her child home for unacceptable behavior. So far, no mother has shown any sign of being upset when I’ve requested her child to follow our family’s rules—even when the mother is standing next to me. And so far, the children all like to get together and play here.”
— from Surviving Parenthood, Mrs Neu's 1970's-era column in the Daily Democrat and Davis Enterprise

 

 

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