Scholarship started in memory of Tifton teen

TIFTON — This small south Georgia community was devastated by the death of Sophia Ruth Fisher on June 30, but in the wake of the tragedy, the ABAC Alumni Association has created a scholarship to honor the late teenager’s memory.

Fisher was a senior at Tift County High and the daughter of Richard and Lynda Fisher. Sophia Fisher and her mother were riding their bikes and were hit from behind by a truck. The younger Fisher died at the scene.

Niki Knox Vanderslice, the president of the ABAC Alumni Association, said that she and the vice president, Dan Hobby, decided that the organization needed to do something.

“The executive committee decided that we would do something and that we would open it up,” Vanderslice said. “It just sort of spread through word of mouth, and we were amazed with the response to the scholarship.”

Vanderslice said she thought it was especially important for the Alumni Association to set something up in memory of Fisher because of how involved Fisher’s family has been with ABAC.

Fisher’s mother, Lynda Fisher, is the director of the Alumni Association and a graduate of ABAC. Fisher’s older brother, Matthew, recently received the George P. Donaldson Award, an award given at ABAC to the top associate’s degree graduate participating in the ceremony.

“[Fisher] loved the school just as much as the rest of her family, and so this was a unique opportunity,” Vanderslice said.

Vanderslice said that in the beginning, she and Hobby thought that they would be able to raise enough money to give away a few $500 scholarships. They have since raised more than $8,000 through a givecampus.com campaign.

Because of the success of their efforts, Vanderslice said that now their goal is for the memorial scholarship to be endowed, meaning that the scholarship would be available every year. To get to that point, they would need to raise $25,000.

Vanderslice said that she was not sure what the eligibility and requirements for the scholarship would be, as she and the rest of the Alumni Association want to leave that up to the Fisher family. The association plans to distribute the first scholarship this upcoming school year to a graduate of the class of 2019.

Donations to the Sophia Ruth Fisher Scholarship can be made at www.givecampus.com/schools/AbrahamBaldwinAgriculturalCollege.