Ally Orr made her case for a new scholarship for women, and Boise State and the nation responded with donations
The number just keeps growing and growing.
The goal was to raise $10,000 total.
That total was surpassed within 24 hours.
Now, nearly two months later, a student from Clark County has raised more than $130,000 for a scholarship at Boise State University. Ally Orr is in her final semester there.
“I never ever thought it would get this big,” she said of the beginning of this quest.
Today, the official goal is to raise $150,000 on the GoFundMe account, but Orr said she would not be surprised to raise more than $200,000. Her story was also featured on Good Morning America.
Orr, a 2018 graduate of Prairie High School, signed the certification papers on the scholarship just 11 days after she started to raise funds.
Today, the Women in STEM, Medicine, and Law Scholarship is up and running at Boise State. The first recipient will be announced prior to the 2022-23 academic year.
Interestingly, Orr is not studying in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics; nor is she in medicine nor law. She is in marketing.
Still, she felt compelled to do something when she saw a video of a Boise State professor encouraging more men to go into STEM. Orr was disappointed that the professor, in her analysis, was discouraging women to study in a number of fields.
“This is a perfect way to say no to this,” Orr said in a phone interview earlier this month. “Women do want to be in these areas of study, and they need to be in these areas of study.”
Orr said she believes 80 percent of the earliest donations came from employees and students at Boise State.
In fact, she started the fundraiser at 10 p.m. on Dec. 2, and blind-copied an email to hundreds of Boise State faculty members and students, detailing her reasons to raise money for the scholarship.
“We want all Boise State female students to feel safe and supported pursuing any degree they choose,” Orr wrote on the GoFundMe page. “All students should be able to be supported in whatever path they choose.”
Orr expects the scholarship to remain at Boise State forever. The recipient of the scholarship will receive 4 percent of the total funds at the beginning of an academic year. The remaining funds will be invested. With more donations, and an expected rate of return on the investments, the scholarship should continue to grow, meaning the scholarship recipients in the coming years would get more money, as well.
Orr said she is grateful she grew up in a family that always told her to do whatever she wanted to do. No barriers. She also thanked her teachers at Pleasant Valley Elementary and Pleasant Valley Middle School, as well as Prairie High School.
She has taken what she has learned in Clark County to Boise State, and now she wants to help other women reach their academic goals.
“The world is limitless,” Orr said.
