Do you know who Stanley Ann Dunham was? This remarkable woman with a man’s name graduated from Mercer Island High School 50 years ago. She was a solid, if not stellar, student and a member of a wide-ranging number of student activity groups. Even at the time, she was known for her independent thinking and her willingness to challenge the status quo. She was fortunate to study under many teachers, especially in the humanities block, who were renowned for their focus on teaching their students to think critically. One of Dunham’s legacies from Mercer Island High School was her desire to continue her education, against all odds.
Dunham went on, first as a single mother and then remarried, living and working in Indonesian villages. She eventually earned her Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Hawaii, studying crafts and tool-making and their impact on social and economic life in Indonesian villages. She also helped villagers develop self-sustaining economic programs. Her Ph.D. thesis, “Surviving Against the Odds,” was recently published posthumously by Duke University Press. (The title refers not to her own survival, but to that of the Indonesian villagers.)
Her humanitarian work was influential in many fields and is too lengthy to go into here. (For more biographical information, see the Wikipedia article online.) But I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, if you didn’t already know, that Dunham was President Barack Obama’s mother.
A group of Islanders and former schoolmates have decided to honor Dunham and the education she received at Mercer Island High School, with a scholarship in her name. (Because this year is the 50th anniversary of Dunham’s high school graduation, the first scholarship will be awarded this year.) The mission of the Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship Fund is to honor the values, vision and accomplishments of Dunham by providing scholarships to girls graduating from Mercer Island High School. The fund supports the educational goals of outstanding future leaders who demonstrate passion and commitment in one or more of the following areas:
•Respectful and productive intercultural communication and cooperation.
•Eradication of poverty and oppression.
•Improvement in the economic and social status of women worldwide.
We hope everyone can agree that pursuing the dream of an education, especially an education that eventually helps others, is a value we all share. We want to support the education of young women who already demonstrate passion and commitment to economic and social equality for people who are oppressed and impoverished — particularly women — and who are likely to make a real difference as leaders in the coming years.
We are proud that at the last School Board meeting, the board enthusiastically endorsed our plan. We are currently building an endowment for these scholarships, working with the school district, and we welcome help from the community. If you would like to share with us in this endeavor, please contribute to the Mercer Island School District Trust Fund, with a notation that the donation is for the Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship Fund. All donations are tax deductible. Please mail your check to the Stanley Ann Dunham Scholarship Fund, 7683 S.E. 27th St., #102, Mercer Island, WA 98040.
For more information, Amanda Clark can be reached at amandac5@comcast.net.
