“I have a mission in mind—to become everything I ever wanted to be and always thought I couldn’t,” says Melonie Robinett, the 2007 recipient of the Ruth Lister Memorial Scholarship.

Melonie Robinett ran away from a chaotic home at fifteen, managed to earn her GED and trained to be a beautician, but struggled in and out of an early, violent marriage. She ended up on her own with few skills, a three-year-old daughter and an infant son, and for a while life went from bad to worse. Jailed for four months, she lost her kids. By 2003, Robinett righted herself, regained custody of her children, and began working toward a different future. “I’m not proud of who I was,” she says, “but I am very proud of who I am today.”

Robinett is completing the paralegal studies program at UAF’s Tanana Valley Campus with help from the needs-based Ruth Lister Lister Scholarship. This fund is for single mothers who are TVC students in good standing, preferably those pursuing a vocational degree.

Ruth Lister served UAF for nearly a decade, first as associate dean of the School of Career and Continuing Education, and then as director of TVC, where she was instrumental in establishing the paralegal program, allied health studies, and other programs that lead to good jobs in Fairbanks and Alaska.  

After a long struggle with cancer, Lister passed away late in 2002. In 2003, the Lister scholarship was established to continue her efforts to build connections between the university, the community and economy, and single mothers like Melonie Robinett.  

Robinett says, “I am the only member in my family out of 18 siblings to go to college,” she says. “I am setting an example for my children to show them that they can achieve their dreams if they set their minds to it.”   

It’s truly impressive what a small investment will do to launch a career and advance an education. When Lacie Grosvold was a Montana high school senior, she was offered a UAF Chancellor’s Scholarship for her first year of study here, and that gesture of welcome sealed her decision to come to Fairbanks.

Now, four years later and a newly minted alumna of UAF, this outstanding student had served as the editor of the student newspaper and as an intern at KUAC radio—a proud example of the power of every scholarship dollar. She has held a number of awards, including the Jo Anne Wold Memorial Scholarship in Journalism and was the first recipient of the Helen Van Campen Journalism Scholarship last year, named in honor of author Van Campen by her friend, Bill Stroecker, himself a local legend.

UAF alumnus Stroecker had a chance to meet Grosvold last year, and he noted there are some uplifting role models commemorated by those scholarships. Van Campen was a journalist who also wrote a number of books, and was well-respected throughout the community. And Fairbanks native and writer Jo Anne Wold taught herself to type using pencil between her teeth and a manual typewriter, after being partially paralyzed by polio at the age of 12. Wold received an honorary doctorate of humanities from UAF in 1979, and has been an inspiration to many who knew her before her death in 1985.

Those vital funds, says Grosvold, “definitely freed me up because I was able to work at the Sun Star during the school year, and take an internship in London over the summer.” As a dual-major in journalism and economics, she garnered valuable experiences during her internship and campus work that wouldn’t have been possible if she’d needed to take more lucrative jobs to pay for school expenses.

The monetary boost is only a part of the equation for students like Grosvold. “It’s really encouraging to get scholarships because I realize someone is paying attention, someone cares how well I am doing in school—and I want them to feel like they’ve spent their money well, which motivates me to do well and make them proud.”