The Frank and Jean Harris Scholarship fund was created to honor this special couple in 2016, the year in which they celebrated 65 years of marriage. With Frank’s passing in July 2016, it is the vehicle by which the family seeks to keep their connection and their legacy alive into the future.
Frank was the first in his own immediate family (or his wife Jean’s family) to attend college. He graduated from the University of Detroit with a degree in business and marketing and was self-employed as a manufacturer’s representative for industrial motors most of his career. Together he and Jean raised a family of four sons: Thomas, James, Steven and Michael, and one daughter, Janet, in Orchard Lake, Mich. After retirement, Frank and Jean lived many years in south Florida and also Georgia, before moving to Saginaw in 2010. Through Frank and Jean, the Harris family children were deeply committed to the importance of a strong education and the lasting value of a college education and training. All of their children completed college at a variety of institutions – a family achievement in which Frank and Jean took great pride.
Their daughter, Janet Nash, made Saginaw her home with her marriage to Dr. Jack Nash. Janet was employed for 32 years by the Saginaw Public School District. She retired in 2010 as Principal at the Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy (SASA). Janet and Jack’s two children (Frank and Jean’s grandchildren) are both SASA alumni. It is this association with the Saginaw Public Schools’ Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy that this scholarship is created. It is created in the hope that a SASA graduate can use it to help obtain a college degree or post-high school vocational certification, thereby creating a career and strong educational traditions for their own legacy someday.
Qualifications
- Minimum 2.75 GPA
- Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy (SASA) graduating senior or prior graduate currently enrolled in college or vocational school
- Full-time enrollment
- Pursuing undergraduate or graduate degree or Career and Technical Education (CTE) training
Evaluation Criteria
- Community service (20)
- Citizenship/character (20)
- Overall involvement (20)
- Letters of recommendation (15)
- Demonstrated leadership ability (10)
- Financial need (10)
- Awards and honors (5)