Sally Jo Mullins Memorial Scholarship

There were actually two first-time awards for the Sally Jo Mullins Memorial Scholarship—one in 1985, another in 1990.

Sally Jo was much loved by both her classmates and her teachers. She was a political science major and a very good student, but her first love was working on the staff of the ECHO student newspaper. After a tragic car accident claimed her life in the summer of 1984, her many friends in the Communication Arts Association and on the Echo staff took it upon themselves to raise enough money for a memorial scholarship to be created and awarded in her honor within the year. Doing so helped ease their pain in losing a beloved friend and colleague and it gave them a way to preserve her love of journalism. They achieved their goal, and a student received the scholarship in 1985.

In the two years Sally Jo had been at CLC, she had had an unmistakable impact on her fellow students. Ron Durbin, who was editor of the ECHO at the time of her death, commented that, “CLC has lost one of the people that really made this college special.” Sally Jo was eagerly planning to be managing editor of the ECHO in her junior year, with dreams of becoming editor-in-chief in her senior year.

The endowed Sally Jo Mullins Memorial Scholarship came a few years later. Sally Jo’s mother was a single mom with two children—Sally Jo and her brother Tim. Bessie Mullins lived in Duarte and worked for General Telephone. She was proud of the fact that her daughter was attending a well-respected private institution but she had her hands full trying to meet the demands of work and family. Nonetheless, she wanted a scholarship in Sally Jo’s name that would be permanent (that is, endowed). She set her goal of reaching the amount required for endowment and then set about making it happen.

Fortunately, her company, GTE, had a matching gift policy that helped Bessie reach her goal. But before the gifts could be matched, they first had to be given, and that was Bessie’s responsibility. Through sheer determination and perseverance, she adjusted her personal budget and lifestyle to help her reach her goal. With the help of other memorial gifts the scholarship fund reached the endowment level in 1989, and the endowed Sally Jo Mullins Memorial Scholarship was awarded in 1990, to the delight of the entire CLU community. Following Sally Jo’s example, the recipient must show editorial leadership while serving on the ECHO staff.

Eventually, a Meditation Circle was created on campus in memory of Sally Jo, and Brian Solem and Sven Slattum, the two young men who died with her in that terrible accident in 1984. Endowed scholarships were also established in their names.