A place to invest in students just like Nathan
Why A Scholarship ?
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Nathan persevered for 12 years to earn his Bachelor's of Arts Degree in History
Nathan never gave up. He started his college career to study History in January 2009 at Westmoreland Community College (WCCC). He loved WCCC. He joined the History club and even helped organize a regional symposium on the French and Indian War before moving on to California University of Pennsylvania in 2011 to finish his bachelor's degree. For the next ten years, Nathan experienced personal and financial struggles which delayed the completion of his degree work. He "crossed the finish line" and received his diploma in May 2021. Nathan never received a scholarship as a non-traditional student, his part time status and overall grade point average disqualified him. He would have been energized and honored to have been awarded a scholarship like this one. It is for this reason we have organized this scholarship fund in his memory to be awarded to a student "just like Nathan." We hope that this scholarship will energize students to continue to study and reach their academic goals.
Who is Nathan Christian Thorne?
Nathan was born in 1989 and died from COVID 19 complications right before Christmas in 2021. He was 32 years old. He lived his entire life in Irwin and Level Green, Pennsylvania just east of Pittsburgh. Nathan fought hard to live his best life despite his struggles with behavioral health and addiction. Nathan was exceptional in so many ways. He was a strong-willed child who should have grown up to be an attorney because he presented great arguments even as a toddler. He loved Match Box cars, Legos, Army Men, Batman, Pokémon, Sonic the Hedgehog, Gundam, and Boba Fett. Nathan loved unique cars too. His first car was a 1971 Midget, followed by a 1989 Porsche, a 2006 Blue Pony Mustang, a 2008 Mustang Bullet, a 1979 Ford F150 truck, a BMW and so many more. He and his "Paw" even built a Daytona race car from a kit. Nathan loved music. He had a true appreciation for different genres; favorite artists were The Smiths, Gordon Lightfoot, Dean Martin, loved many alernative artists. Even as an adult, he loved Snoopy & anything Peanuts. He loved video games. He preferred to play PC games over console games. Nathan was a proud 2008 Norwin High School Graduate and a 2021 Cal U Graduate. He received his diploma just six short months before his death. Nathan was a passionate student of world history. He especially loved Ancient Rome & Greece, as well as modern American History. Nathan left behind a huge library of his favorite books, music and movies for his family and friends to treasure. Nathan made many short self-produced videos that make his friends and family laugh and cry. His radio voice was deep & dense. His sense of humor and comedic voices brought the house down in laughter.
Here is the best part of Nathan's Story............
Nathan overcame personal obstacles to become the incredible man that God created him to be. In October 2018, God allowed Nathan to get to the end of himself and bring Nathan to reliance on Him. After his last overdose, he laid in the hospital for 50 days recovering from acute compartment syndrome in his legs. He had to learn to walk again, only this time he leaned on God, not himself. He stopped making plans and surrendered his life to God. He learned that it had nothing to do with the good or bad that he had done, it was always about what God had done for him 2000 years ago. Nathan cleaned his life of all the things that had brought him down. This is when the "magic" happened. He gave God the Glory for his healing and transformation. He proclaimed, “Jesus is the Only Way.” Nathan’s life started over and for the next three years he lived like he had never done before. We still feel so honored that God picked us to be Nathan’s family and friends. He was amazing as his interests and talents spanned many genres, styles, and categories.
We miss his laugh.
We miss his tight hugs.
We miss his stimulating conversations about politics and religion and love.
We are blessed to have had him with us for 32 years. He left a legacy.................A legacy that will forever move us to tears as well as joy and hopefully impact others in their life's journey. We trust that his story will impact your life as well.
Scholarship Contributions
This year's goal is $4000. We are hoping to help two (2) students this year.
A $2000 scholarship will be awarded to a student just like Nathan at WCCC in the Dec of 2023. If we exceed this goal, we will also be able to energize a student at Cal U (now PennWest) with $2000 in the Spring of 2024.
Click on this QUICK ONLINE DONATION LINK
INDIVIDUALS
https://pay.nathanchristian.org/IndividualDonation
BUSINESSES / CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS
https://pay.nathanchristian.org/CorporateSponsorship
OR
Contributions can be mailed to the following address:
The Nathan Christian Thorne Scholarship Fund
603 Beech Drive, Level Green, Pennsylvania 15085, United States
