Out of the Blue
By Dan Meyer
There are moments in life when something happens that changes everything.
It can come totally without warning.
It happened to Sam Batty ’80 just as he was finishing the first semester of his sophomore year at Doane University.
Sam was just three semesters removed from Beatrice High School. His parents had been determined to have him become the first in the family to earn a college degree and narrowed his choices to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Doane.
Sam remembers visiting Doane with his dad. They were struck by the beauty of the campus in Crete. The small classes and attentiveness of the faculty. The friendliness of everyone on campus, from professors and staff members down to the students.
They were impressed again when they sat down with former admissions counselor Pappy Khouri and financial aid director Bill Pallett in the Padour Walker Administration Building. To Sam and his dad’s surprise, Doane had put together a financial aid package competitive with UNL. It had the right blend of scholarship and work-study monies and manageable loans.
They weren’t even back to their car after leaving Padour Walker before Sam turned around and enrolled at Doane.
But his early years at college weren’t without obstacles. Like many Doane students past and present, Sam filled his schedule pursuing his passion: accounting.
On top of his work-study job on campus, he traded his bookkeeping skills for haircuts and pocket money at the local barber. He tended bar at Vyhnalek’s and got a job at Crete State Bank.
His freshmen year was quite the adjustment, picking up the pace from his days at Beatrice High. Sam started to figure out that he needed more time to study and had to work harder to complete his coursework.
But during his sophomore year, after his grades had slipped and decreased the size of his academic scholarship, he was in a pinch. Even with all of the money saved up from his numerous jobs, Sam couldn’t pay for his education at Doane and would owe the school by winter break.
Late in the semester, when it came time to register for spring semester classes, Sam decided to pay the financial aid office a visit and see if there were any funds available for him to make ends meet.
This meeting with Pallett didn’t go as well; he told Sam he was already maxed out on the aid sources available, leaving Sam devastated that he would have to leave Doane and work before he could finish his degree.
Exhausting all options, Sam went to the business office on the last day he could register for his classes and sought to work out a payment plan.
Then something unexpected—something out of the blue—happened.
"You don’t owe anything," said Eileen Sand, a student account manager. "Your bill is paid up."
Sam was amazed. His bill, hundreds of dollars, had disappeared.
"Somebody did something to help me out," Sam says, years later. "At the time, this would’ve required weeks and weeks of work for me to raise the money to pay the bill. To this day, I do not know who paid that bill."
By the time his junior year rolled around, he found a better way to balance school and work. His grades were better, good enough even to regain the scholarship money he’d lost. He added a few more accounting jobs on the side to secure his college education.
And it was then that Sam met Carol, his future wife. They dated and were married before his senior year, moving into married student housing in Gaylord Hall for his final year at Doane.
Thirty-six years later, he still as a soft spot for the whole Crete community, which gave him the side jobs he needed to help fund part of his college education.
"When I look back now," Sam says, "it is easy to see how much the local community helped Doane, and how Doane was an intricate partner in the financial stability of Crete."
To this day, though, Sam still wonders which community member made the pivotal contribution to his education.
It came out of nowhere but meant everything to him. It’s why he’s been able to proudly call himself a Doane alumnus ever since—and why he chooses to give back to his alma mater.
"I give back to Doane what I can because of this experience," Sam says. "Doane University is the largest benefactor of my charitable giving. Ever year at Christmas time, I make the gift to Doane. When I sit down and write that check, I think of me—I think there is a me back there at that school that can probably use my help. I want that person to have the same opportunity I did. I want to invest in somebody’s future."
Invest in Our Students’ Futures
Follow in Sam’s footsteps and give a gift that helps our students pursue their passions. Contact Thom Reeves at 402.826.8284 or thomas.reeves@doane.edu to learn about your options.