The past few months have seen the announcement of Sumsion Business Law’s new Live Like Alex Scholarship. This scholarship seeks to award undergraduate students who serve and light up the lives of everyone they interact with. With an award of $2,000, we hope to help these students pursue their educational goals.
But why is education important? In recent years, trending social media posts have increasingly depicted education as useless, a waste of money, or unimportant to the jobs graduates find after college.
Alex Johnson—the man who inspired the Live Like Alex Scholarship—is a great example of the importance of education in the modern world.
Alex Johnson went to SUU to play baseball. While in college, he worked for the school's broadcasting program broadcasting football. Immediately following his graduation he became a triathlon coach for boys in rehab. Most of the people he coached were there because the court ordered them to be. But Alex loved them. It was his job, but he also loved those he worked with.
He worked with this program for around eight years, eventually moving up to become a director, before switching his career path to cybersecurity.
Alex worked in cybersecurity for twelve years, but this didn’t connect him to people, so he switched career paths again.
He chose to start a hardscaping company. He had a wife and four kids and knew starting a business was a risk, but he did it anyway. In this company he worked directly with people and loved leading those around him.
Most of Alex’s career was not related to his college degree. His business was blue-collar and some would argue that he didn’t need an education in order to work in that industry. However, Alex believed in education. Education is never a waste. Alex took what he learned in school and in each industry he worked in and applied it elsewhere. He learned, retained the information, and used it when he needed it.
The same applies to students today. A college degree shows your ability to learn and qualifies you for many jobs, even if they are in a different industry than what your degree is in. Some people say they “Don’t use their degree,” but they still received an education. They were taught how to think critically and research and form opinions. At Sumsion Law we truly believe that education is never wasted. We hope to encourage people to receive an education and to help them through the gift of the Live Like Alex Scholarship.