the bookman’s scholarship

Have you ever caught yourself thinking what you would do if you had a lot of money, like you won the lottery or an old rich family member died (of natural causes, to be clear)? I have and one of the things that I have always thought that I’d like to do is set up a scholarship at my alma mater. In 2016, I was impressed to start the scholarship with what little money I had and slowly build it and add to it as time progressed. There was no reason to wait.

In 2015, I had read a book called “The Bookman’s Tale: A Novel of Obsession” by Charlie Lovett. Before I read that book, I had never heard of the word, “bookman”. Of course, I had to look up the word and was delighted to find that it described me perfectly.

Naturally, that became the name of the scholarship: The Bookman’s Scholarship. It is for students who love books and reading and are enrolled in a literature courses. The application requires a 250-word essay where they can discuss their favorite quote or their favorite book.

I’m happy to say that we have awarded two small scholarships to-date and plan on growing the fund to endowment status with the ultimate goal of paying for four years of college for one student. Although that appears to a long way off, so was the idea of even having a scholarship to begin with.

If you have an idea, a dream, or something you think it would be cool to do, don’t wait! Figure out how you can make it happen now. Two students were able to get into school because I went for it. That’s amazing to me.

I had the pleasure of meeting Charlie Lovett at The Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham, Alabama in March of 2017. I bet he didn’t think that his book title would inspire a scholarship to help students through school.