BYF Founders George and Lucy Shaw
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BRIGHTEN YOUR FUTURE
Brighten Your Future is a non-profit corporation established by George and Lucy Shaw which was chartered in December, 1988. The organization began meeting in the spring of 1988 with the goal of insuring that every Logan High School graduate would be able to find the financial assistance necessary to attend the type of post secondary education that he/she desired and for which he/she was academically qualified for admission. Brighten Your Future hopes to impress upon Logan-Hocking School District students of all ages the importance of education, with the hope that they will be motivated to do their best in pursuit of their career and educational goals.
A large number of LHS graduates who desire to pursue further education are the first generation of their family to do so. Brighten Your Future will help these students as well as students in low-income situations. However, neither of these circumstances is a requirement for assistance. Last dollar grants do have an income component as determined when students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which is provided by the United States Department of Education. Most colleges use this information from the FAFSA to determine students' financial needs as a basis for grants, scholarships loans, etc. Brighten Your Future uses this same information to help determine eligibility for grants. This is all part of the effort to insure that the money goes to those who need it most.
This project was patterned after the Columbus, Ohio, “I Know I Can” program with the help of their director at that time, Amy Farkas. One important variation to their program is that because of the make-up of our community, our board of trustees felt it was imperative, that we include vocational and career programs as appropriate post secondary education in addition to traditional four-year baccalaureate schools. As long as a program is accredited, students may choose to attend and receive a BYF grant if they qualify. We require that individuals be accepted for admission at the institution they choose and have a minimum high school cumulative GPA of 2.00 or a 2.50 during their senior year. Trustees also make discretionary grants on occasion in response to extraordinary needs of students.
The maximum grant per student is established each year by the Trustees, based on the amount of grant money available and the number of eligible applicants. Since 2024, Brigthen Your Future has awarded over $2.1 MILLION to Logan High School gradduates.