Donor generosity inspires Dougherty

For John Dougherty, Reba Maciula’s generosity is worth more than money.

Without the $2,200 Dougherty receives from his PDS, the mechanical and aerospace engineering freshman said he would probably be at a community college rather than Oklahoma State University.

But the Putnam City native said Maciula’s generosity reaches beyond financial assistance by also driving him to fulfill his potential.

During Dougherty’s first semester in Stillwater, he became overwhelmed by extracurricular activities – Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology scholars, Honors College, Homecoming and Freshman Follies. Combine that with 15 hours of classes and he struggled to balance it all.

“Before I knew it, I didn’t even have time to breathe,” Dougherty said. “All this stuff was crashing down on top of me. I kind of put off school for all these other organizations and obligations. Before I knew it, I was in danger of losing all these scholarships at the end of the semester. That was a wakeup call for me.”

Dougherty said he realized Maciula’s gift was for education, not extracurriculars. He needed to focus on class first and let the other activities follow once he brought his GPA back up to the level he expected from himself.

“By having these other people saying, ‘Because of what you have demonstrated in your life, this is what we’re going to do for you,’ it put it in perspective for me again and before it was too late last semester, I got it turned around and started off this semester completely right,” Dougherty added.

He wrote a letter to Maciula explaining the situation and telling her how much he appreciated her gift. He explained that he would continue to show her his dedication with his renewed focus.

“If not for my family, if not for the girl I’m dating, if not for my brothers, if not for anyone else to set a precedent, it’s for this person I’ve never met that handed me this gift,” Dougherty said.

“When I sat down and reflected on that, when I thought about who wants me to be here, who is pushing me to be here, who has it on the line with me being here, it really made me see the bigger picture. College is really important.”