A Message From the Chairman
"Throughout my journey within private Seventh-day Adventist education, I have witnessed peers who couldn't take final exams, missed months of school, or could not return to classes because their parents did not have the funds to pay for tuition. My most vivid memory is of a classmate whom I attended the same academy with since Pre-K not being able to take their final exams. We were approaching the final exams of our senior year in high school when administrators separated the class into two groups: students who were financially cleared to take their finals and students who were not. Although my classmate attended the school all their academic career and had two older siblings that also graduated from the academy, they were in the collective group of students who could not take their finals. In my opinion, despite schools being a business, we should never allow finances come between our Christian ethics, especially when parents are faithful to an institution as greatly as theirs was. Moments like these are what inspired me to created the Loose Change Foundation.
When you compare any private Christian education system to the public school system, two major factors sway the conversation: money and academic quality. From personal experience as a product of Seventh-day Adventist Christian education, I can arguably say it is worth every penny. People tend to debate the quality of academics, but it is much more than academics. The overall worth of Christian education cannot be translated into a dollar amount.
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Nicholas Bowdry
Founder and Chairman
Although I believe Christian education is priceless, I am well aware it comes with a cost. I decided to create the Loose Change Foundation with a simple concept in mind: every penny counts. My mother would tell me the phrase so often that it began to lose value. I heard what she was saying, but I never really understood until it was time for me to begin paying for thing on my own. Attending a Seventh-day Adventist university opened my eyes to how true the phrase "every penny counts" really was. I watched as people flooded the financial aid office to get every cent they could towards their tuition. I was right there with them. Recognizing the struggle to pay for college tuition made me realize that every penny does not just count on the university level, but also within elementary, middle, and high school. For some, the opportunity to attend a private Christian academy or university may be stifled because of finances. My goal is to make Seventh-day Adventist education as affordable as possible to people who generally cannot afford it or struggle to keep their children enrolled. My hope is to create a system where tuition costs are reduced, or even completely eradicated, for every student enrolled. My continuous prayer is for this foundation to grow and touch as many lives as possible. I am thankful God placed this vision in my heart and I am looking forward to serving you."