Educator Encourages Future Teachers with Estate Gift

People want to become teachers for many reasons. It could be the desire to continue a family legacy, the need to make their own way or a love of working with children. Just wanting to become teachers is part of the reason why 10?15 University of Central Missouri students are selected every year to receive the E.L. and Margaret B. Crayton Memorial Scholarship.

Margaret Berneice Crayton, a 1949 alumna, made a provision in her will to leave the UCM Foundation an estate gift that established the scholarship. Crayton and her husband, Elvie L. “Ted” Crayton, were career educators who credited their success to the opportunities they received at UCM.

Ask some of the recipients about the scholarship's importance to their college goals and you'll hear some common themes. Elizabeth Mueller, elementary education major, says her father's death in 2008 inspired her to pursue a teaching career. “I acquired many of his old teaching materials, books and knick-knacks from his classroom that I look forward to incorporating someday into my own classroom,” she says.

For Brittany Grimm, a full-time student and full-time mother, the scholarship means less stress as she pursues a teaching career. “I want to show people that it is possible to reach your dreams and strive for better ones when you have a loaded plate,” Brittany says.

Tara Smith is another exceptional student in the long list that Crayton's gift has helped. She is a double major in early education and elementary education and Spanish minor. She has always been somewhat of an over-achiever earning several college credits and taking online courses at UCM before graduating from high school. Smith notes, “I was very anxious to further my education after high school.”

Although these students have different credentials and traits that make them unique, they pursue the same goal: to change the world through teaching. These students are one step closer, thanks to Crayton providing for UCM in her estate.

“Mrs. Crayton is a wonderful example of the lasting legacy an estate gift can offer to UCM and its graduates,” says Jason Drummond, executive director of the UCM Foundation. “True to our founding as a teacher's college, many of our alumni who have had lifelong careers in education have provided for the university in this manner. Their investment in the future of education comes to fruition with each new recipient of their scholarship. Their gift touches multiple generations.”

Learn How You Can Help
For more information please contact the Office of Planned Giving at 660-543-8000 or toll-free at 866-752-7257 or [email protected].