Hopper Memorial scholarship announced at Ozarka College

MELBOURNE — Ozarka College has announced a new scholarship, the Cynthia R. Hopper Memorial Scholarship, which is a $500 pass-through scholarship established by Monte Hopper, husband of the late Cynthia “Cindy” Hopper. 2018 graduates of Mountain View High School with a serious commitment to volunteerism during their high school career are eligible to apply for the award.

Cindy Hopper was an annual visitor to Mountain View from Connecticut, and later Delaware, for 15 years. She worked for many charitable and civic organizations and served on the boards of her church, a cancer charity, a women’s club and a garden club. For more than 30 years, she was on the board of a scholarship foundation and political organization.

Monte Hopper is a native of Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Arkansas. Monte and Cindy lived in Connecticut for 50 years, where they raised two children, Derek and Jill. Like Cindy, Monte was also heavily involved in volunteer activities. Education was a big part of their lives, and both of them were very big fans of community-type colleges.

After Jill’s unexpected death in 1999, the family established a scholarship with the Avon (Connecticut) Dollars for Scholars chapter in her name. The family moved to Delaware in 2014, then Cindy died in 2015. Monte added Cindy’s name to the scholarship fund originated in Jill’s name.

“We started visiting Mountain View for a few days at a time,” Monte Hopper said, “[and] in 2005, we started spending the month of September there. Then a few years ago, we purchased a cabin in the Pinewood Cabins complex in Mountain View. During our visits, we became admirers of the Mountain View schools and Ozarka College. So a scholarship at Ozarka for a Mountain View graduate is a natural.”

The deadline to apply for this scholarship is April 1. To do so, incoming Ozarka College students need to log in to myOzarka and click the Finance tab. For assistance applying for this and other scholarships, call Ozarka College Financial Aid at (870) 368-2009 or email finaid@ozarka.edu. For more information about the Cynthia R. Hopper Memorial Scholarship, contact Suellen Davidson, Ozarka College director of advancement, at (870) 368-2059 or sdavidson@ ozarka.edu.