Steps Up Articles

Announcing the 2021 SPARK! Creative Learning Grant Recipients

As we start to emerge from the pandemic, schools and educators are trying their best to bring a sense of normalcy back to their students.   This year’s SPARK! Creating Learning Grants recipients brought creativity back into their classrooms with each application we received. We’re honored to spotlight the educators whose innovative spirit shaped...

SELCO Debuts the Richard Metzler Opportunity Scholarship

Education has always been at the heart of SELCO, as it was built by educators, for educators, students and their families. To carry on this legacy, in 2021, we commemorated the 31st anniversary of the SELCO Scholarships program by awarding $2,500 scholarships to 19 high school seniors and debuting a new $5,000 scholarship in honor of Richard...

Announcing the 2020 SPARK! Creative Learning Grant Recipients

Educators and students stepped into unknown territory in 2020, and without thinking twice, SELCO continued to step up. In an unexpected year like 2020, SELCO awarded 47 educators with SPARK! Creative Learning Grants, investing over $42,000 in projects designed to spark meaningful learning for students across the state of Oregon. Students and...

The SELCO Scholarship Program Turns 30

This year marks the 30 th anniversary of the SELCO Scholarship program. This milestone reflects three decades of SELCO’s commitment to supporting our community members—and that includes students. Since its inception, the SELCO Scholarship program has helped hundreds of students from every corner of Oregon. What began as a way of giving back has...

Lights, Camera, Learning! Digital Media Grant Brings Student Stories to Life

Daniel Asay dreamed of giving students real-world digital media experience. The Santiam Junior and Senior High School educator knew all it would take would be access to quality tools. Thanks to a 2018 SPARK! Educator Grant (now called Creative Educator Grants) from SELCO Community Credit Union, the classroom is now equipped with professional...

Announcing the 2019 SPARK! Creative Learning Grant Recipients

Educators across Oregon are turning creative ideas into meaningful classroom projects with the support of our SPARK! Creative Learning Grants.   These grants were designed to empower educators to breathe life, curiosity, and creativity into their classrooms with new projects geared toward increasing engagement among students.  Each project that...

2019 Marks a New Chapter for SELCO’s Scholarship Program

Since the inception of SELCO in 1936, it’s been a priority to give back to education—knowing our founders were educators themselves, looking out for one another. This year we decided to reinvest in our students by increasing our scholarships to $2,500 per recipient. We always aim to do more for our local students, especially since they’re steppi...