(Butler, PA) A legacy scholarship established Dec. 17 to honor the memory of Caitlyn Kaufman has exceeded $13,000 in the weeks following the shooting death of the 26-year-old Butler County Community College Nursing, R.N, graduate.
Approximately 37 individuals and organizations through Dec. 31 contributed a combined $13,035 to the fund commemorating Kaufman, a 2018 BC3 graduate who was killed Dec. 3 on her way to work as an intensive care unit nurse at St. Thomas West Hospital, Nashville, Tenn.
The Caitlyn Kaufman ’18 Legacy Nursing Scholarship would reach endowment level when funds surpass $15,000, according to Ruth Purcell, who retired Dec. 31 as executive director of the BC3 Education Foundation, which will administer the scholarship.
An endowed scholarship “exists forever,” Purcell said.
Of the 138 named scholarships available to students from the BC3 Education Foundation in the 2020-2021 academic year, 116 are endowed, said Lynn Ismail, interim assistant director and financial manager of the foundation.
Gift amounts toward the scholarship in Kaufman’s name have ranged from $10 to $2,500, Ismail said, adding that contributions have come from donors from four states in addition to Pennsylvania.
“I have been very pleased and humbled, but not necessarily surprised, by our local community support, because that is what Butler County does,” said Dr. Nick Neupauer, BC3’s president. “And this scholarship has drawn support from other states. That is something that is truly unbelievable and recognizes this very special individual.”
The scholarship will honor a friend who always wanted to give, said Kiley Cribbs, a BC3 administrator who with Kaufman’s family created the award.
“Caitlyn always wanted to help people,” said Cribbs, the college’s coordinator of EMS and police training programs who worked with Kaufman’s mother, Diane, at BC3.
“By establishing this scholarship, we can capture some of the same traits in other people that Caitlyn thought were very valuable. Being able to reach that $15,000 threshold to make it an endowed scholarship will ensure that we are able to pay that forward to someone every year.”
The Caitlyn Kaufman ’18 Legacy Nursing Scholarship is specified to a second-year student enrolled full-time in BC3’s Nursing, R.N., associate in applied science degree program. Students must also have a 3.0 grade-point average to be eligible for the scholarship.
Kaufman, formerly of Chicora, graduated from Butler Area Senior High School in 2012. She received earned bachelor’s degrees from California and Clarion universities of Pennsylvania in 2016 before enrolling at BC3. She was a member of Clarion’s diving team.
First preference for the scholarship will be given to an applicant who has participated in high school or collegiate athletics, according to Purcell, adding that the award will average about $500.
“It is Caitlyn’s legacy that can be paid forward to other people who are going to step into the role that she was in,” Cribbs said, “and fill those shoes.”
For information about contributing to the Caitlyn Kaufman ’18 Legacy Nursing Scholarship, visit BC3’s website at bc3.edu or send a check payable to the BC3 Education Foundation Inc., P.O. Box 1203, Butler, PA 16003. Please note in the memo section, “Caitlyn Kaufman Legacy Scholarship.”
