Scholarship Impact:

A short biography of Michael Demarais ’24 shows a linear, almost inevitable rise from success to success. He achieved some of the institution’s highest honors. In his final year, he was a John Christopher Hartwick scholar, the winner of the Kellogg Oratorical Prize and a recipient of the Dr. Elizabeth V. Lamphere ’38 Scholarship.

During his two-year tenure with the Otsego County Emergency Services department, Michael brought a free EMT course to campus for Hartwick students and community members. He gathered accolades seemingly with no effort. Reality told a different story.

His father lost his job during the pandemic and he reached a stage where he didn’t think he could afford to continue his education. That low point became a turning point in his college experience and the moment when he was made aware of Hartwick College’s network. Professors Andy Piefer, Mary Allen and Susan Navarette, and Heather Bailey refused to let him give up and would not let him leave. They did everything to make sure he did his very best. “They pushed me to be comfortable in the uncomfortable,” Michael remembers, “I still keep in touch with them.” The Dr. James J. Elting H’13 Memorial Scholarship and the Dr. Otto Steinbach Memorial Scholarship in Chemistry, both given to him in his junior year, erased his debt and allowed him to get his Hartwick degree.

These scholarships did much more than help Michael financially. He was overwhelmed by the generosity and realized that every scholarship and award at Hartwick was named after someone who made the decision to support future Hartwick students. People were investing in a future they would not live to see and helping folks they would never know! This knowledge became a resolve and a promise, one which he put in a note of gratitude to Dr. Robert Kanter when he was granted the Lynn S. Kanter Memorial Award.