Peanut Scholarship

This fund was the idea of SIUC student, Stephen Ross. The Peanut Scholarship fund was inspired by “Peanut” aka Tremain Edgecombe. “Peanut,” as he is called, was really young when both of his parents went to prison. Even though what his father did to go to prison was wrong, Stephen feels that it’s not right or fair for Peanut to suffer as well. Without the opportunity, education, or resources to reach his potential, Peanut may get discouraged. He misses his parents a lot. If he was inspired to follow his father’s athletic path, he might even more easily follow those same footsteps to prison. That is when Stephen thought of the idea to start a scholarship that would help children in a similar situation as Peanut.

This scholarship will not only help children who have a parent or parents that are incarcerated, but also the ones whose parent or parents who were victims of crime and can no longer help their children (for example, suicide, 9/11 tragedy, homicide, spouse domestic violent abuse or drug addiction). Too often we hear these stories on the news but overlook the children, who end up in foster homes where they are looked upon as a paycheck or just left alone to survive for themselves. If these children later commit crimes we are too quick to judge them harshly when, in reality, they may-be doing their best to survive by playing the cards they were dealt. Mr. Ross’ goal for the Peanut scholarship is to provide an opportunity for some of these children so that they can succeed.

This scholarship is open to incoming freshman and current SIUC students, (2) student must demonstrate financial need, (3) the applicant should write an essay as to how his/her life was impacted by a parent/guardian being incarcerated or about a parent/guardian being a victim of crime.