Kip Gauldin Memorial Scholarship

The Kip Gauldin Memorial Scholarship is created for entering freshmen students who will be enrolled full-time at WSU.

Criteria
1. Each recipient must be an entering freshman student who will be enrolled full-time at Winona State Universtiy.
2. Each recipient must be a graduate from one of the following schools in Minnesota: Annandale High School, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, Eden Valley-Watkins High School, Holding Ford High School, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted High School, Kimball Area High School, Maple
Lake High School, Pierz Healy High School, Rockford High School, or St. John’s Prep High School.
3. The recipient can declare any major at Winona State University.

Background/Motivation
Kip Gauldin was born on August 29, 1960, and lost his courageous battle with cancer on July 31, 1995. In that span of 35 short years, Kip created and left a legacy that lives on through his family, students, athletes, teachers and members of the community that he knew and loved.

Kip graduated from Park Rapids Area High School in 1979 where he played football, baseball, and was on the wrestling team. He garnered several honors including all-conference, Minnesota Academic All-State, High School Student-Athlete of the year, and National Honor Society.
Beginning in 1982, Kip attended Winona State University until his graduation in 1985. While at WSU, he played football and was a member of the 1983 NIC Championship team which also participated in the NAIA National Tournament. After graduation from WSU, Kip married Nancy Harland (also a WSU Alum) and was the Industrial Technology teacher at Maple Lake High School where he coached both football and wrestling.

Kip & Nancy were blessed with 3 children – Ariel and her twin brothers Cole and Cooper. In the years since Kip’s passing, the children have grown to be active members of the community and themselves stand-out athletes participating in Volleyball, Track and Field, and Football with Cole and Cooper gaining All-State recognition in Track and Field. Ariel has in fact followed in her parent’s footsteps and attended Winona State through her graduation in 2013.

More important than these facts, dates and places, is the love, kindness and compassion that Kip brought to his teaching, coaching, parenting and community involvement. Kip exemplified that to live life to its fullest is the greatest reward. Preparing his students and athletes for their journey through life, that family comes first, and maintaining perspective was what he did best.

This scholarship is meant to help provide an opportunity for a student who exemplifies Kip’s values to continue their academic and life studies so that they can then contribute to the community in a way that would honor Kip’s memory.