The Brooks Rolfness Impact Scholarship Fund was created in honor of Brooks Rolfness, a Bellarmine Freshman, who passed away in December 2017.

Brooks was a well-rounded student, who participated in football and lacrosse, performed community service at a local elementary school and received strong grades in the classroom. It was with these characteristics in mind that his parents, Nicole, and Erik, decided to create a memorial scholarship in his memory.

"We created the scholarship to help motivate kids to continue being well-rounded," Nicole said. "Because often, those are the students who go unnoticed because they are not focused on being high achieving at just one thing."

This is why the criteria for receiving the scholarship, which is given to a Bellarmine sophomore student, has multiple requirements. Students must have a 3.5 GPA or higher, be an active participant in athletics and perform community service.

"It was very important to us that this was not just a financial, need-based scholarship," Nicole said. "It was about providing encouragement to one of these well-rounded students."

Brooks' friends and classmates were a major reason the scholarship was ultimately formed. Nicole said if it was not for Addy B'18 and Benny B'21 Jasper selling bracelets in Brooks honor to help raise funds for the family, that the scholarship might not have happened. It was Benny who named the scholarship, using BTIMPACT, Brooks’s gamer tag on Xbox, as inspiration.

"We knew we were not going to accept the money," Nicole said. "We wanted the money raised to benefit Brooks's classmates."

With that idea in mind, Nicole and Erik decided to meet with Bellarmine's Advancement Department to discuss the idea of creating an endowment scholarship fund in memory of Brooks. Nicole credited their team with being helpful in the process of setting up the endowment.

When creating an endowment fund, the money is then invested and must grow before any scholarships are given out. They were able to raise $25,000.00 in just nine weeks. In total, the fund is now worth over $40,000, which is enough to give out two $1,000 scholarships each year, which is Erik's and Nicole's goal.

"Our hope is we will be able to give out a scholarship to both a male and female student," Nicole said.

As the fund continues to grow, it is already Bellarmine's largest memorial scholarship fund. "The fact that we have raised over $40,000 is really a testament to who Brooks was, and the legacy he left," Nicole said.

The Rolfness family also worked with the Bellarmine to have a Class of 2021 bench placed on campus. The bench is in memory of Brooks, and his Community Period class assisted with the design of the bench.

When Peter Blitz B'88 was a sophomore at Bellarmine, he convinced Sr. Joyce Cox, principal at the time, to give him permission to attend class on Mondays only during the winter season so he could live at Crystal Mountain and ski all week.

"I was a National Level Junior Skier and needed the training time, but I honestly couldn't believe she allowed me to do it," Blitz remembered with a laugh.

While that all changed the following year when new Principal Chris Gavin took over, Blitz stated that Bellarmine was always a place that tried to accommodate the needs of the students and meet them where they were at, especially when it came to academics.

Blitz also recalled that Bellarmine created a second, more advanced AP calculus class because his class needed to be challenged more. His teacher at the time, Jerry Miller, created the curriculum, while at the same time battling cancer.

"He showed up every day to teach the class while undergoing chemotherapy," Blitz said. Jerry Miller unfortunately lost his battle with cancer, but left a lasting legacy at the school and with Blitz. "He was my hero," Blitz said.

Even after having gone to Stanford, Blitz stated he still feels that Bellarmine was the most positive education experience of his life.

For these reasons, Blitz generously funded an endowment specifically for faculty development to ensure current and future students receive the academic experience he received during his time at Bellarmine.

The gift is intended to benefit faculty members in core subjects, offering financial opportunity ($10,000 a year) to a teacher pursuing an advanced degree or certification which enhances the ability to teach upper division AP and honors classes.

Blitz specifically wants to make sure Bellarmine doesn't lose quality educators to other, more lucrative jobs outside of education.

"I want to keep them in education and have them invested in it," Blitz said. "By providing them with more education, the more they invest, the more likely they are to stay."

Rick Oldenburg, Gift Planning Specialist at Bellarmine, had a chance to get to know Blitz during the process of setting up this new program, and had this to share.

"Jerry Miller's gift to his students and now Peter's gift to the Bellarmine Faculty completes a circle that ensures more students will have the opportunity to experience another Jerry Miller-like teacher at Bellarmine."

Blitz's passion for quality education also stems from when he was on the faculty of a private school. During his time as a teacher, he created software that he was able to turn into a large company, which he recently sold.

He remembers his years of teaching fondly, and has a strong desire that teachers not necessarily leave the classroom the way he did.

"Teaching was my most rewarding career," Blitz exclaimed.

Blitz's passion to see young, smart, quality people in the classroom, along with his high regard for what Bellarmine provided to him, are the reasons he decided to make this very generous gift to the school.

His gift has created The Jerry Miller Faculty Scholarship Endowment Fund, which will perpetually support faculty improvement and forever honor Mr. Jerry Miller, one of Bellarmine' legacy faculty members.

When Leo Hindery Jr. B'65 was speaking last fall with close friends — among whom was his cherished St. Patrick and Bellarmine classmate, Bill Leedom, B'65 — during his and Leedom's shared 70th birthday party in Scotland, little did he know that his words would prompt a gift of $100,000 to his high school alma mater. Hindery has been recognized not only as a St. Robert Bellarmine Award recipient (2000), but also as a Distinguished Alumni winner (2012), and it is this Bellarmine pride that drives much of his passion for education.

One of Hindery's other dear friends in attendance that evening was Earl Gareth Jones of Scotland. During that evening at Skibo Castle — at one time Andrew Carnegie's residence in Scotland, and now home to the private Carnegie Club — Hindery spoke with characteristic passion and charisma about the Hindery Family Scholarship Fund, which he created in 2000 at Bellarmine to provide tuition assistance for students of color and other students in need. Hindery talked about the fund because he was struck by the realization that some of the close friends with him that evening, including Jones, had themselves started with very little or nothing at all.

Hindery also reflected that evening on the example of Andrew Carnegie himself, who Leo describes as being "an unparalleled philanthropist who by the time of his passing had given away his entire fortune except for a modest gift to his daughter." This is a practice Hindery is also following.

Hindery remarked that, "Life's challenges for young people today are not easily confronted, especially if you are of color, poor or living in a difficult home environment."

Jones was so moved by the discussion that evening that he decided to also support the Hindery Family Scholarship Fund. "Leo's comments are the reason for my gift of $100,000," said Jones. "He spoke so passionately about Bellarmine, the scholarship fund and the students."

Hindery's words hit home with Jones in many ways because of Jones's own educational experience as a child. At age 15, Jones left school to start work — not because he wanted to, but because that's how it was in Scotland in the 1960s. "Back then you were pigeonholed if the system thought you weren't going to achieve something notable in education," remembered Jones. "It was simply best to leave school and go find work."

Because of how he was treated in school, Jones also has a great passion for creating educational opportunities for those who might not otherwise be able to afford it.

"This is extremely important to me," he added.

With education out of his reach, Jones chose a physically demanding journey that led him to marine engineering after leaving school in his teens. He first spent time as an apprentice on oil rigs in the North Sea, and eventually he started his own company, Dominion Gas, in the 1980s. Jones sold the company to a venture capital firm in 2007. Selling his company allowed Jones to retire to Arnage Castle in northeast Scotland, the purchase of which granted Jones the title of Earl. More important to Jones, however, the move provided him the opportunity to support those causes meaningful to him, such as access to education and support for organizations that focus on helping those who are less fortunate.

"There is nothing more valuable than providing quality education to our youth, and I am thrilled to know my gift is going to such a good cause," says Jones. "I wish all the students of Bellarmine the best of God speed for the future and every success that they strive for in life."

Sidebar: The Hindery Family Scholarship Fund was created in May of 2000 to support access for students of color to attend Bellarmine. With a current value of over $3.8 million, it continues to be the single largest fund in Bellarmine's endowment and generates over $180,000 annually to support tuition assistance.

Sidebar: Leo Hindery Jr. B'65 is Managing Partner of InterMedia Partners in New York. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he is the former CEO of AT&T Broadband and its predecessors Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) and Liberty Media. Bill Leedom B'65 is Senior Partner of Bennett Bigelow & Leedom, P.S. in Seattle.

James Louis Mack (Jim) was born in Tacoma and graduated from Bellarmine in 1969. He attended Western Washington University and retired from the City of Tacoma in 2007 after serving in several capacities at Tacoma Public Utilities including Geographic Information Systems manager. He passed on to his reward on July 19, 2013

Jim enjoyed many interactions at Bellarmine over the past 25 years. He was the first to organize the class of 1969 for the successful Alumni Class Challenge phoning during the late 80's and throughout the following decade. He was a past president of the Bellarmine Boosters, and in 2013 received the Jeff Buhr Award for Outstanding volunteerism from the Boosters. The presentation carried the words, "Jim was always present and ready to serve Bellarmine with his outstanding work ethic and wry sense of humor." In his Last Will and Testament, Jim left a donation to his Alma Mater. As with many things in Jim's life, he was not ostentatious, so his gift is extremely meaningful to Bellarmine and to its students. It will be added to the endowment and will increase the amount available to families for financial aid.

While presenting the check, Bob Mack B'67 (Jim's brother), stated, "Jim was a believer in the education that Bellarmine provided our family and he truly supported the school in as many ways and as much as he could during his lifetime."

"I remember the first time I met Jim. He agreed to make phone calls for the Alumni Class Challenge. He told me he didn't think the class would contribute much but he was happy to try. Jim smiled and began asking classmates for annual donations to help keep tuition down and to provide work-study and scholarship opportunities to Bellarmine students. Within a few years the class of 1969 was one of the top 5 donating classes." - Rick Oldenburg, Gift Planning Specialist