‘Know that you’re supported’: Boise State student raises $50K for women’s scholarships
When Ally Orr first heard the comments from a Boise state professor who said women shouldn’t be recruited into engineering, medical or law fields, she was angry.
“I was completely baffled that anyone would say that, let alone a professor teaching women and especially at the university I go to,” she told the Idaho Statesman. “Honestly I didn’t know how to react.”
The comments were from Scott Yenor, a political science professor, who gave an Oct. 31 speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Florida that went viral after a Boise nurse posted a Nov. 25 video with excerpts of his speech on TikTok.
In the 15-minute speech, Yenor called independent women “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome,” condemned feminism and referred to universities as the “citadels of our gynecocracy.”
After Orr saw the speech, she watched another video Yenor posted on Twitter in response to the backlash he had received. When scrolling through the comments in response to that video, Orr saw one suggesting someone start a scholarship in Yenor’s name.
She thought it was a great idea. So she decided to take action — to channel her frustrations into something positive.
Since starting a GoFundMe page on Dec. 2, Orr has raised more than $50,000 for a scholarship that will go to women pursuing STEM careers, medicine and the law.
The funds will be used to create an endowed scholarship at the university, so it will exist indefinitely and will be awarded annually to a person who fits the criteria. The first recipient of the “women in STEM, medicine and law scholarship” will be identified in the spring and will receive 4% of the total funds in the scholarship in the fall.
“The $50,000 speaks for itself,” Orr said. “I think no words are needed because everyone’s donations are those words.”
How the Boise State scholarship fundraiser started
Orr said she was nervous when she first decided to raise money for a scholarship. She is still a student at Boise State and she wasn’t sure how the community would react. But she decided the risk was worth it, she said.
She created the GoFundMe page and then looked up the email addresses of as many Boise State faculty and staff members as she could find.
She spent hours copying and pasting the email addresses and, in all, reached out to about 600 people at the university, she said. In the subject line of her email, she wrote: “Scholarship for Medicated, Meddlesome, and Quarrelsome Women.”
“I needed the subject line to pop,” she said.
After she sent off the emails, she went to bed, barely slept and woke up the next day to see whether she had received any responses. By 10 a.m., the GoFundMe had already brought in $2,000.
The original goal was to raise $10,000, she said. That’s the amount needed for a one-time scholarship. She didn’t even know if she’d be able to meet that goal, so she had a backup plan. If she didn’t raise the $10,000, she’d donate the money to existing STEM scholarships at Boise State.
Less than 24 hours after she started the GoFundMe page, she reached that goal.
So she increased the bar to $25,000, the minimum amount needed to start an endowed scholarship. From there, she upped the goal to $50,000.
Scholarship hits $50,000 milestone
Within about three weeks, the fundraiser reached $50,000 with donations from more than 500 donors. It was up to $50,811 as of Thursday afternoon.
Idaho Women Lawyers, an organization created for “improving the legal profession for women lawyers,” donated the last nearly $900 needed to get the fundraiser to the $50,000 milestone.
Molly O’Leary, an IWL board member and former president of the Idaho State Bar, said when she saw the fundraiser, it struck her as something the organization should support and an effort that aligned with its mission.
At an IWL board meeting a few days later, board members discussed the idea, researched it further and decided they wanted to get the fundraiser to $50,000, O’Leary said.
O’Leary said she hopes the scholarship encourages women to follow their dreams, and not let anyone “tell them they can’t or shouldn’t.”
“Even though there have been many great strides made over the past couple decades,” she said, “there’s still a lot of work to be done for women to be fully represented in the profession.”
Kristin Bjorkman Dunn, president of IWL, said the scholarship fund helps advance the organization’s mission and “counter the misguided views that women are less than their male peers.”
“When someone expresses these views, the voices espousing inclusion, welcome, and support of women in these fields must rise equally as loud. IWL hopes this contribution does just that,” she said in a statement.
‘500 people cheering you on’
Over the past few weeks, Orr has devoted hours responding to emails, talking with professors and donors, sending thank-yous, communicating with the university and writing the criteria for the scholarship.
She’s heard from a number of women who have shared stories about obstacles they faced in their careers in STEM, medicine and law fields. They donated to the scholarship because they wanted women considering going into these fields now to not have the same experiences they did, Orr said.
“That’s been really heartwarming to see,” she said. “Women that had to go through so many things … say: ‘No, we’re done with this. This is unacceptable.’ ”
Orr plans to keep the GoFundMe open, so people can read about the campaign and hear from those who have donated.
“It’s a reminder of why we started it,” Orr said. “If we got rid of the GoFundMe, there’s not this story of how this happened.”
Since Yenor’s comments were shared widely on social media, thousands of students, professors and community members in the Treasure Valley have come out against them.
Hundreds of people showed up to Boise State earlier this month for a “Women Belong Everywhere” demonstration to rally behind the idea that women could pursue any career path. Thousands signed a petition calling for the university to investigate and possibly discipline Yenor.
And women who had Yenor as a professor have shared their stories and experiences publicly, with some alleging he treated women differently than their male peers.
Orr said she wants women looking at this scholarship and considering STEM, medicine or law studies to know they will always have people rallying behind them.
“Know that you’re supported no matter what obstacles you face,” she said, “that you have 500 people cheering you on and (they) are your biggest supporters.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
