{"id":66233,"date":"2022-07-19T08:26:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T13:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=66233"},"modified":"2022-07-19T08:26:40","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T13:26:40","slug":"entrepreneur-honors-inspiring-educator-with-namesake-gift-to-fhsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=66233","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneur honors inspiring educator with namesake gift to FHSU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By FHSU FOUNDATION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a beautiful spring afternoon in Downtown Hays, Joseph Boeckner met with his kindergarten teacher, Marilyn Davidson, to surprise her with news that he had started a scholarship in her name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he was a student in Davidson\u2019s\nclass nearly 30 years ago, Boeckner, who now owns several Hays businesses, said\nit was Davidson\u2019s teaching style and patience that led to his success later in\nlife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davidson, a lifelong Hays educator, is a\nbeloved presence in her classroom and to those who know her in the community.\nFrom an early age, Davidson mirrored her parents, both teachers, in giving\nlessons to her stuffed animals on the stairs of her childhood home. She later\ncombined her passion for education, music, and working with young children to\nshape her career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davidson first attended Southwestern\nUniversity to study music and later pursued her master\u2019s degree in elementary\neducation at Fort Hays State University over the summers while raising her family\nuntil her graduation in 1971. Boeckner met Davidson in 1992 and describes her\nas \u201ca very engaged and thoughtful teacher. She genuinely cared about her\nstudents, and it showed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davidson\u2019s creativity and musical\nability influenced her learning environment. She often spent her summers\ncrafting kimonos, igloos, trees, and castles to inspire her students to learn\nabout other cultures and engage with learning key concepts. She then tied\nlearning with music to develop rhythm and other sensory and reading skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few years of teaching\nkindergarten, she moved on to first grade. Since her retirement from education,\nDavidson continues to volunteer her time and teaches reading and music at\nWilson Elementary. Davidson\u2019s care and attention to her young students\nexemplify the commitment to teaching Boeckner hopes this scholarship instills\nin future educators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEducating is being able to see the\nprogression from not knowing anything to knowing how to read. And reading is a\nbig piece of people\u2019s lives,\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boeckner fondly remembers his time spent\nwith Davidson and their relationship. \u201cShe was a great role model in addition\nto being a great teacher. We\u2019ve stayed in touch over the years, and I\noccasionally went back to her classroom to help with projects. She believed in\nme at a young age. There was never any question about who my favorite teacher\nwas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 After high school, life became\nbusy for Boeckner, who joined the military and later began starting his\nbusinesses, which caused a disconnect with Davidson. When Davidson\u2019s husband of\n57 years, Harvey, passed away in December 2021, Boeckner began to reflect on\nthe impact she had on him and wanted to pay it forward. It was then he began\nplanning the establishment of the Marilyn G. Davidson scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The endowed scholarship seeks to support\nstudents pursuing a degree in teacher education. It is available to on-campus\nand online students, full or part-time, majoring in teacher education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While preference is given to students\nwho have expressed an interest in working in Ellis County schools, other\nstudents may still receive the award if that preference is not met. Students\nare welcome to apply each year for the renewal of this award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davidson hopes the award encourages\nstudents to pursue teaching and that it will help students in need afford their\neducation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTeachers will always be needed.\nHowever, passionate and impactful teachers like Mrs. Davidson are not a dime a\ndozen. We need teachers who truly care about the students and appreciate all\nthat Hays has to offer. Hopefully, this scholarship helps remove a barrier to\nentry for a few teachers who can step into those big shoes,\u201d Boeckner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boeckner is a serial entrepreneur with\nseveral Hays businesses, including Joe Bob Outfitters, HaysTees, New Age\nServices, and, most recently, Blackhawk Motorsports. He and his wife, Jodi,\nalso invest in several other businesses around town. On top of their many\nbusiness ventures, Joseph and Jodi have two children, Michael and Hadley.\n\nTo learn more about how you can make a\ndifference in your community by establishing a scholarship, please contact the\nFort Hays State University Foundation by email at foundation@fhsu.edu<\/a> or by phone at 785-628-5620. You can also visit\nhttps:\/\/foundation.fhsu.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By FHSU FOUNDATION On a beautiful spring afternoon in Downtown Hays, Joseph Boeckner met with his kindergarten teacher, Marilyn Davidson, to surprise her with news… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Boeckner-Davidson20Scholarship.png?fit=1260%2C1782&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66235,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66233\/revisions\/66235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}