To all our friends:

This year, we again awarded four-year scholarships to four graduating seniors at Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix.

As I discussed in a previous letter reviewing our interviews at Carl Hayden, this year’s students continued to be extraordinary, reflecting the amazing changes occurring at the school.

Chuck and I did our normal analysis of the objective data presented to us in the applications, and fine-tuned it by what we learned from our in-person interviews.

When we sent out our four awards letters, we received two calls back that returned our awards to us!!! And, for the very best reasons we could possibly hope for: they had received substantial other assistance that made ours not necessary.

One, Nilo Thomas, was awarded a Gates Millennium scholarship ( www.gmsp.org ) which allowed us to re-award his scholarship to another student at Carl Hayden this year.

Nilo chose to attend Willamette University in Salem Oregon, where I live. Nilo has already spent time at my house, last November when he visited Willamette, and we’ve begun what I hope will be a strong friendship in the future. So, while Nilo won’t be a Maecenas Fund Scholar, he is a much more prestigious Gates Millennium Scholar.
Another recipient received sufficient other financial aid that she, too, was able to return her award to us to be re-awarded to another student at Carl Hayden.

Four years ago, when we began at Carl Hayden, we were nearly alone in providing material financial aid to the school’s deserving graduates. Today, because of the significant cultural shift we are proud to have been part of, more of Carl Hayden’s graduating classes have higher educational aspirations and are better able to seek and earn financial aid.




While we are proud to have been part of the positive changes at Carl Hayden, there are two people that stand out, in our opinion, as being tremendous leaders for change on the ground there: Principal, Steve Ybarra, and Teacher/Robotics Team Coach, Fredi Lajvardi. Their unending commitments to the students at Carl Hayden have been instrumental to its current successes.



All of this wonderfully encouraging and uplifting involvement caused me to reflect the next morning on the beginnings of The Maecenas Fund.

It was just over four years ago that I visited the school to see if it might be a good platform to test out ideas Chuck and I had been talking about to improve access to higher education. I had spent an entire day at the school, from 7am until after 6pm on a Friday in April, 2005.

I spent most of the next morning at a local outdoor Starbucks, making notes, organizing my thoughts and trying to figure out what I had learned the previous day. Most importantly, I was trying to come to grips with whether it made sense to start the Maecenas Fund, and, if so, how it could be done. I was most intimidated by the magnitude of the tasks I saw ahead.

I had finished my coffee and was sitting back, absent-mindedly rotating my cup, with its protective sleeve. For some reason, I stopped rotating the cup, looked down and looked directly at the sleeve. Perfectly-centered in my grasp were the following words:

                           "Who says you can’t change the world?"

Of course, I looked around for Rod Serling (the Twilight Zone) and listened for its distinctive music. Neither Mr. Serling nor the music came forth.

What did come forth, however, was the challenge to start The Maecenas Fund, and the commitment to do the very best I could for it and its Scholars.

Answers can sometimes come in the oddest of ways, and from the most unusual of messengers. It is important for our world that we listen.

Best Regards,
Peter Gaskins
President

P.S. – I kept the protective sleeve, and have it in my file today just to be able to prove to myself that this really happened.