Honors Link

A luncheon for scholarship recipients isn’t known as a good date spot, but sometimes the unexpected happens. For example, take Anne and Mike Goetze, who met at such a gathering in 1986. Anne remembers walking into the Memorial Union ballroom – packed with some of Oregon’s best students – and finding an open seat next to Mike. Like her, he had received one of OSU’s very first Presidential Scholarships. “I remember thinking it was so easy to talk with him,” she says.

They hit it off immediately. Both were leaders in Greek life, and they chatted about their Greek communities. The luncheon was the beginning of their life together. They married in 1990, and today their sons, John and Peter, are both enrolled in the Honors College.

Now loyal alumni and President’s Circle members, the Goetzes demonstrate how scholarships can lead to unexpected beginnings – and even create a turning point in a young life.

Fact is, Mike almost didn’t attend Oregon State. A Corvallis native, his parents, Barbara (’53) and Norman Goetze (’52), began their lifelong love story when they met at OSU, and his dad spent his career there as an agronomy professor and Extension leader. But after Mike graduated as valedictorian of his high school class, he enrolled at a university in New York State. He changed his mind at the last minute when Oregon State offered him its most prestigious scholarship. “The Presidential Scholarship really forced me to give OSU a strong consideration,” he says.

Scholarships also can inspire a student to succeed. “The opportunity to meet the donors was incredibly motivating to me as a student,” Anne says. “I learned just how much these people cared about the college and me as an emerging professional.”

Mike adds, “My sponsor actually flew in by helicopter for one of the luncheons. I thought if he can do that, then I can get my butt in the classroom.”

Presidential Scholarships are awarded to top students from Oregon, aiming to encourage the state’s brightest young achievers to stay here, where they become leaders in their workplaces and communities. The Goetzes settled in the Portland area, where both are well established in careers: Anne with the Oregon Dairy and Nutrition Council, Mike with Precision Castparts.

To help new Honors students get a good start at Oregon State, last summer the family hosted a send-off event at their home: a place where incoming students could make connections before school began, and where they and their parents could ask questions.

Anne notes with appreciation that John and Peter received generous merit-based scholarships from OSU. “It definitively does help when you’re paying tuition times two.”

Still, she believes that a merit-based scholarship is more than just financial incentive. It builds a commitment to the university and to Oregon. “It’s a connection to our state,” she says. “We bleed orange.”

A scholarship might even spark romance. “I wasn’t expecting to meet someone like Anne at the luncheon,” Mike recalls, “but obviously, that was a perk.”

Learn more about supporting scholarships at OSU.

This story was originally posted by the OSU Foundation.

Photo of the Goetze family by Hannah O’Leary.