Honoring beloved teacher, former Shelley students create scholarship fund

SHELLEY — To honor their beloved teacher, a group of former Shelley students created the Mike Winston Scholarship Fund.

Mike Winston taught chemistry, biology and physics at Shelley High School for 27 years. Throughout his many years of teaching, he touched the lives of his students with his hands-on approach to learning. Now that Mike has retired, some of his former students wanted to honor his legacy by creating a scholarship fund in his name.

“I felt like he always believed in me and what I was capable of doing,” Mike Winston Scholarship Fund founder Nicole Eaton told Community Pioneer.

Eaton said the idea came to her after seeing her former teacher featured on EastIdahoNews.com’s Feel Good Friday and talking to some of her former classmates about him.

“One of my friends that I had in class with (Mike) — he and I talked back and forth and we were just talking about what a great person (Mike) was and that he made you believe in yourself,” Eaton said. “One night I woke up in the middle of the night and was like ‘you know what, I think I should give back and try and make a scholarship.'”

Having never created a scholarship before, Eaton reached out to Stan Searle who has had experience in creating scholarships.

“I kind of just became a silent partner in helping them direct what they needed to do to make it happen,” Searle said.

Searle also knows Mike and has worked with him on some of his projects.

“He wants only the best for everyone,” Searle said. “He has no personal goal in mind. It’s always about somebody else.”

Searle directed Eaton and the others working to create the scholarship to the Shelley Education Foundation.

The Shelley Education Foundation is a non-profit that works to provide enrichment for Shelley students. The foundation collects donations from around the community and puts those funds towards different needs in Shelley’s school system.

According to their website, they have helped purchase playground equipment, books, musical instruments, computer programs and more.

The Shelley Education Foundation decided to sponsor the Mike Winston Scholarship Fund. All donations to the scholarship and awards from it will go through the foundation.

Searle explained this allowed Eaton and her classmates to create the scholarship fund without having to apply for non-profit status. 

Not having to wait for the extensive paperwork and the approval process of becoming a non-profit will allow the scholarship fund to give out its first award this spring.

“I’m just working on the scholarship and trying to get it funded. So this year we have at least enough donations to start out with giving our first award this spring,” Eaton said.

Eaton said their goal is to raise at least $25,000 over the next three years so the fund can become sustainable.

“I just felt like it was a good way to maybe kind of honor him as a teacher and also the innovative things that I thought he brought to Shelley over the years,” Eaton said.

She said what made Mike special as a teacher was that he would find ways for his students to apply what they were learning in the real world. He even created the Science Solutions course which taught students how to solve problems in their community with science.

“I think about how much he brought to small-town Shelley — Shelley High School really — for creating the Science Solutions class. Which I felt like was ahead of its time, because he promoted learning that was actually applicable to real-world experiences,” Eaton said.

In 1999, Mike’s students got a real-world experience unlike any other. Under his guidance, they moved and restored a one-room schoolhouse from Wolverine to donated land.

That land became the North Bingham County Historical Park located just east of the Snake River on West Fir Street.

“He created the North Bingham County Historical Park here in Shelley. Its purpose was to give students, and anyone else who had an interest, the opportunity to learn on something that was real. A live project that benefited, not only the students through the learning process, but also became an asset to the community,” Mike’s wife Joan Winston said.

The North Bingham County Historical Park now has 15 buildings and other structures surrounded by landscaped grounds.

The historical park was just one of the many projects Mike was involved in with his students throughout his career.

“Because his classes were hands-on, he ended up having troubled kids (in his class),” Joan said. “Because hands-on worked for troubled kids or special needs kids, a lot of times he’d get both.”

She explained that Mike also taught some of the brightest students at Shelley High School and taught the students in the Gifted and Talented program at Hobbs Middle School.

“He taught it all,” Joan said.

Partly because of Mike’s wide range of students, from gifted and talented to special needs, the scholarship won’t only be awarded to help pay for college or university, but many different kinds of higher education. It also isn’t meant for only students with the best grades.

“The scholarship is centered around those that show a special interest in a special, unique program. And have a desire to further their education and make it happen,” Searle said. “It’s not going to go to the highest educated student. It’s not going to go to the student who’s got the best grades. It’s more going to be around the one who has been in the science department and shows a unique ability and has a need.”

The eligibility requirements for the Mike Winston Scholarship Fund are: 

• Applicant must be in their Senior year at Shelley High School. 
• Applicant must have a B level (3.0 or above) GPA. 
• Applicant must have taken a Science class in the last four years of high school. 
• Applicant must have completed 20 or more hours of community service or school service in the last 4 years. 
• Applicant may not have been convicted of a felony
• Applicant must submit a Letter of Recommendation from a non-family member of the community. 
• Applicant must submit a written essay of 500-700 words or a 7-10 minute video essay sharing why they feel they should be chosen for this scholarship award

Applications should be sent to [email protected] by March 1, 2021.

“It takes a lot of work to set something up like this. It’s just very impressive that they went beyond just saying thank you,” Joan said.

Mike is suffering from some health problems and wasn’t able to speak much. However, he was able to express his gratitude.

“It’s very touching,” Mike said.