Violet Jangraw, an incoming junior at Key West High School, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about a nonprofit she began.
Reach for Greatness will provide funding and scholarships for middle schoolers and high schoolers who are trying to pursue academic programs or leadership programs.
Jangraw explained, “I applied to two summer programs a few months ago, a three week long law program at Columbia University in New York City, and then a two week long program at Georgetown and I ended up getting to both of them, and I decided I wanted to pursue the one at Columbia, and it was $15,000 which is a crazy amount of money, and I could not pay for that, so I went to my school guidance counselor and the college advisor at the Key West High School, and I asked if there were any scholarships available, because that was the only way I was going to be able to pay for it. There were so many scholarships, but I did not qualify for any of them, because I’m not a senior, so scholarships weren’t going to help me. So I ended up talking to Dustin Hunter, who is a criminal defense attorney I did a two week long internship for last summer, and he was the one who told me I should start a nonprofit, Reach for Greatness.”
The nonprofit has a board of directors.
Jangraw said, “We founded the organization April 7, and we got all the board members within that week. We actually, yesterday, had our first board meeting, and we decided, because of the funds that we have gotten, we are fully able to pay all three applicants that have applied to the scholarships. So as of today, I’m letting all of the applicants know that their programs are going to be fully paid for. It’s thousands of dollars. Between all four of us, it’s $21,500.”
How did the board members come to the organization?
Jangraw said, “Most of them, I knew already, and I have been asking them questions before I even started the nonprofit on how I should get funding or just overall advice. So it was pretty easy to just ask them to be on my board, because I love all of their advice, and they’re all really helpful.”
Recipients can be in middle school or high school and the application is online.
Jangraw said, “Anytime, anybody can apply. I was really hoping it would come together this quickly, so I’m very happy with the outcome, and I’m expecting it to get bigger, and next year, hopefully we will have a lot more applicants. I want to go to the schools and do a brief presentation and maybe put up flyers in the offices, so then we can get more students to apply. I would like to thank our president, Katie, who has generously donated $5,000 and then has offered to double every dollar that anybody else donates, up to $5,000 as well. So that has been a great starting point in the nonprofit. You cannot donate through the website as of right now, but we do take checks and we have our address on the website as well as the EIN number.”
For more information, click here: https://www.reachforgreatness.org/