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A monument was dedicated to Dr. Jon Graff at the Northland Pioneer College (NPC) Painted Desert Campus in Holbrook after the meeting of the Navajo County Community College District Governing Board on Dec. 18, to honor the support Graff has provided the college and its students over the past few years.
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NPC Friends and Family Executive Director Betsyann Wilson shared, “The monument was beautifully constructed by David Huish, director of facilities and vehicles, to honor the support Graff has provided over the years.” Wilson also noted that Graff helped to fund the monument as he didn’t want scholarship money spent on it. The monument is located in front of the Nizhoni Learning Center at the Painted Desert Campus in Holbrook.
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Graff, who lives in San Jose, Calif., has been a rider and silent supporter of the Pedal the Petrified for a number of years and this last fall he set up the Jon Graff, PhD, Fund to award three categories of students: those who are enrolled in a degree program for university transfer; those enrolled in career and technical education programs; and those enrolled in college and career prep classes, in pursuit of their high school equivalency diploma and an opportunity to take college level courses.
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Three students, Cynthia Owen from Snowflake, Brooke Alexander from Sun Valley and Vaughn Willeto from Whiteriver were the recipients of the first Jon Graff, PhD., scholarships to be awarded. All three recipients came to the dedication to say thank you to Graff for his support in their dreams.
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Owen, who was winner of the Jon Graff, PhD., University Bound Scholarship, said she is working to complete her associate degree at NPC and then plans on transferring to Arizona State University to complete a bachelor’s degree in social work.
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“I want to use the degree to be hands on in helping out in homeless shelters and food banks,” said Owen. “I have had first-hand experience of how these issues touched my family and I want to help people get their feet back under them when life has knocked them down.”
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Brooke Alexander attends NPC with both of her sons and all of them competed for the Jon Graff, PhD, Career and Technical Education Scholarship.
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“I told Brooke they’d have to duke it out to see who won!” Wilson said. In the end, the scholarship committee determined that mom prevailed.
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Alexander is an outstanding student both in welding and in academic classes. With the scholarship, Alexander said she is hoping to finish her certificate of proficiency in welding in the spring of 2019 and then continue into an associate degree program in energy and industrial technology, “To further enhance my skills and my employability in today’s complex and changing markets,” she said.
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Vaughn Willeto, winner of the Jon Graff, PhD, College and Career Prep Scholarship, is a resident of Whiteriver and a member of the Navajo Nation.
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Willeto said that he has been studying for the last seven months with NPC and is hoping to get his certificate of proficiency in construction technology by the end of the spring semester.
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“I have work lined up in the Valley as soon as I am certified,” Willeto said, who plans to the use some of the scholarship money to purchase the text books used in the classes as he likes to have the references available when he is on the job.
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