Making college possible

Cable-TV pioneer Bill Daniels had a passion for helping deserving students attend college.

Today, community organizations and schools annually nominate thousands of students to compete for 250 Daniels Fund scholarships that cover college costs not met by other financial aid. The kids who receive them often face cultural challenges and incredible odds: growing up in poor neighborhoods, siblings who are involved in gangs or abusive and alcoholic parents. Daniels called them “diamonds in the rough.”

A scholarship winner now enrolled at Colorado State University recalls the day a letter from the Daniels Fund arrived in her mailbox: “My heart stopped. This letter would decide my future. I sat there for a while, unable to open it. When I finally did work up the courage, all I needed to read was, ‘Congratulations.’ I knew the rest of my life would be different.”