Sweet Home High School senior Dakotah Keys is one of three Oregon students out of 186 applicants to receive the third annual Beat the Odds scholarship from the Stand for Children Leadership Center.
He is joined by Desiree Moan of South Umpqua High School in Myrtle Creek and Rogelio Perez of David Douglas High School in Portland. Each will receive $10,000 over four years.
The three winners have succeeded in school despite daunting obstacles, according to Rebecca Groff of Stand for Children.
“The Beat the Odds Scholarship Awards Program is designed to highlight the incredible potential of Oregon’s young people as well as the challenges which prevent too many of them from succeeding,” she said.
One Oregon student drops out of school roughly every hour, she said. That’s more than 7,000 per year. The program aims to raise awareness about the importance of improving the odds for Oregon children.
The scholarships are underwritten by patrons of Stand for Children.
They will be awarded on Nov. 18 at a luncheon in the Oregon Zoo Ballroom at the Oregon Zoo in Portland. The luncheon will feature a video presentation on each scholarship winner.
Keys is a nationally ranked and accomplished athlete, but academics are his top priority. He carries a 3.57 grade point average.
He is a lifeguard and teaches at the high school swimming pool. He also volunteers with a youth sports clinic.
He plans to attend the University of Oregon and major in sports marketing while taking his pre-nursing requirements.
“I like working with kids, so I’m going to be a pediatric nurse,” he said. He said he had considered teaching, but “I like helping more than teaching.”
In September, he plans to marry Justine Calhoon, who will be in her last year of nursing at Linn-Benton Community College.
After graduating from Oregon, he hopes to continue his education by obtaining a nursing degree at Oregon Health Sciences University.
He will be the first person in his family to graduate from college.
“I was pretty amazed,” Keys said of winning the scholarship.
Keys continues to pursue other scholarships, he said. He has made a verbal commitment to join the Oregon track team in exchange for a full-ride scholarship, which would pay all his tuition.
If he raises enough from other scholarships, he’ll be able to let his team use the athletic scholarship for another student, he said. The track and field program has a limited number of scholarships available.
“Just because you are poor does not mean that you have to live poor,” Keys said.
Keys and his two brothers have been raised by a single mother, Lela Danforth, who for many years was unable to work due to struggles with lupus and a heart condition. The family moved frequently and has been homeless several times.
In 2004, they moved to Sweet Home to help run an outreach ministry and soup kitchen. They’ve been here since. In recent years Danforth has devoted herself to building a junior high soccer program in Sweet Home and this year has served as an assistant cross-country coach as well as founding the Sweet Home Track and Running Club, both efforts to get local youngsters involved in athletics.
Keys credits his mother for instilling that work ethic in him.
As a coach, “she makes them work pretty hard if she knows they can do it,” Keys said. He started soccer and track while in preschool, and he enjoys the workout.
Despite living his whole life below the poverty line, Keys said that he didn’t realize he was poor until his freshman year at SHHS.
“I see now that my past is not ordinary,” he said. “I now know that the education that most kids take for granted is a valuable tool for obtaining a better life.
“A lot of it is just working hard.”