I received the most amazing letter from UVU last week. It started off: "Congratulations! You have been selected from a large number of qualified applicants to receive a PRIVATELY FUNDED SCHOLARSHIP. Your scholarship was made possible by a generous donor to UVU." I learned that Mr. and Mrs. Jon Huntsman, Sr. had decided to award me $5,000 to continue my schooling. Such a blessing for me! Commuting to SLC every day costs about $200 a month in gas and I have had no luck in securing a second job during the daytime to offset those costs. I was beginning to get discouraged about whether I would be able to continue on with school and how I could stretch the monies to keep up with everything. THEN this letter shows up most unexpectedly. I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father watches over me and feel this is the answer...I NEED to continue on with my studies. I didn't know much about Mr. Jon Huntsman, Sr. so I read up about him on Wikipedia. Such a life of service ~ he is a billionaire and a great philanthropist. Just finished putting together a thank you letter to him and his wife. This has given me the added confidence that was beginning to slip. Thank you again Mr. and Mrs. Huntsman!

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Huntsman: July 12, 2010

I wanted to thank you for your generosity on my behalf. The scholarship funds that you have provided are truly a blessing in my life. Please allow me the opportunity to tell you a little about my circumstances. I am one of the non-traditional students at UVU. My husband and I were married on Valentine’s Day, 1976 and raised 6 children. We have 9 grandchildren with the 10th on the way. We moved to Lindon, UT from Washington State seven years ago when our children were attending BYU and getting married. My husband is 13 years older than me and is retired so it has been my responsibility to provide the medical benefits for our family. I have been blessed with fairly steady employment throughout my life. I have a commercial drivers license and drove for a number of years in Washington for Head Start and also for Ben Franklin Transit Company. Many times I have held a second job and so over the past 25 years I have cleaned banks, schools, churches, jails and individual homes. My employment with the LDS church began about 15 years ago as a church custodian in Washington. I also worked as a church custodian when we moved to Utah until I was hired by BYU as a custodial supervisor in the dorms. I stayed at BYU for three years and was able to take evening classes while working. BYU granted me a leave of absence in July of 2008 so that my husband and I could serve a full-time mission. I was so grateful that they would allow me to go and that the medical benefits would be extended while we served. We were called as full-time Housing Coordinators in the Utah Provo Mission Office. Working with President Harold Brown was a marvelous experience. Six months into my mission, it was discovered that I needed an emergency surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. President Brown allowed me to continue serving from home while I recuperated and the couple we had replaced excitedly returned to the mission office to help out. We were granted an honorable but early release for medical reasons. I was unable to get hired back on with BYU since they were in the midst of a hiring freeze so I worked for Deseret Industries for about 9 months in American Fork. They encouraged me to continue on with my schooling so I began attending Utah Valley University full time while still working for DI. The people there were wonderful and I had the opportunity to tutor 8 of my co-workers in English as a Second Language using gospel based materials. I am bilingual since I worked for nine years in an orchard when I was younger. It was truly a tender mercy for me because it felt like Heavenly Father allowed me to complete my mission there at DI. My school goal was a simple one. Over the years I had been able to take a few classes, here and there, so I wanted to complete a 2 year degree. I really enjoy people so I declared Behavioral Science as my major. Following our mission, I paid for COBRA to continue the medical benefits. In January of 2010, I was hired as a part-time employee at the Riverton Office Building and then three weeks later I was hired fulltime once again to work for the church. I now work evenings in Salt Lake cleaning the LDS Business College and BYU Salt Lake Center. I love learning and am committed to finishing my degree. Although I am a very hard worker, I would like to be able to work with my brain instead of just with my hands. I have a desire to work with those of other cultures and when I finish my schooling I would like to return to Head Start to work as a home visitor. This scholarship came at a time when I was beginning to doubt that I would be able to continue. Living in Utah County and commuting to Salt Lake each day takes about $200 a month in gas monies so I have tried to get a second job to offset those gas prices. Working from 5 PM to 1:30 Am does not allow me to take the bus or carpool and I could not understand why I haven’t been able to secure a second job during the daytime hours. I believe that with your gift, Heavenly Father has my best interests in mind and that the answer for me is to continue on with my schooling. Thank you again for considering me as a worthy candidate. I was truly humbled to be chosen and promise to give my very best efforts as a student at UVU.

Sincerely,

Linda Fluharty