From One Dollar to Millions in Choctaw Scholarships
The Chahta Foundation started with an idea from Joy Culbreath, an early driving force of the nonprofit, in 2011. The Chahta Foundation is dedicated to advancing Choctaw life through education, wellness, and tradition. Kathy Carpenter opened an envelope from an inaugural donor to the Chahta Foundation scholarship fund; she found a dollar bill and some coins. More funds arrived, and then the time came to choose the first Chahta Foundation scholarship recipient. The committee’s decision to award the first Chahta Foundation scholar was significant for the first two committee members, with a former education career helping Kathy see through the student’s perspective. Joy’s insight as a leader of Choctaw Nation’s education teams and her background in higher education. Kathy and Joy poured over the applications, narrowing the stack to the top two candidates. They were stumped, but with no additional funding available, they had to choose between the excellent candidates. A shared memory they both reflect on as the committee and scholarships have grown far beyond what they dreamed of at that time. Today, the Chahta Foundation has awarded millions of dollars in scholarships to hundreds of deserving Choctaw students attending and graduating from all over the United States. In 2024, the Chahta Foundation scholarship funding doubled to $1.7 million, all thanks to donors who continue to send funds from generous hearts. In 2024, two scholarship banquets were held for the first time to accommodate the growth and celebrate the recipients.
Many Chahta Foundation scholarship recipients remain or return to the Choctaw Nation for their careers. Chloe is a former scholarship recipient and Choctaw Nation associate.
When Chloe began pursuing her degree at Oklahoma City University School of Law, she was asked a defining question by someone: “Do you know where you came from?”
While Chloe was most familiar with her European ancestry, she had little passed down about her Choctaw heritage at this time and wanted to learn more. “Two days later, I got a call from the Chahta Foundation,” Chloe says. “I was being awarded the Heritage Legal Scholarship. It was such an eye-opening moment because it set me on the path to finding out where I came from.”
Chloe has stayed on that path by working within the Choctaw Nation Legal Department, where she just completed the three-year payback portion of her scholarship. Chloe has also accepted the opportunity to give back by serving on the Chahta Foundation’s board of directors.
“It’s a full-circle experience,” Chloe says. “This allows me to hopefully help another student find out where they came from.” Scholarship selection is no longer limited to a single choice—like when Kathy and Joy picked that first scholar—and careful vetting is still in place to select the best-matched students for each scholarship. Over 100 volunteer scholarship readers serve on the Chahta Foundation’s scholarship selection committee to review and score applications. Choctaw Nation tribal member Charles volunteers on the committee. Charles teaches composition, music theory, and music history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and serving on the selection committee is a joy for him.
“Working with others on the committee feels like a very Choctaw process,” Charles says. “The idea of listening carefully to different points of view and finding commonalities is something I’ve come to treasure. And Choctaws are diverse. Some folks who apply are training to do welding in rural Oklahoma, and others are attending Ivy League universities. A great thing about the scholarship program now is we have the bandwidth for both.”
If you’d like to become a donor or even fund a scholarship in honor of someone, please contact [Angela Palmer at 580-642-8006]. Every single dollar counts toward advancing Choctaw life and community.
Credit: Sarah Elizabeth Sawyer
