Sixty-Six in Twenty Twenty-Six Support NSU Hospitality Scholars!
- Sheri Raleigh
- 2 minutes ago
- 7 min read
A single meal can change a day. A single welcome can change a trip. A single scholarship can change the path of a student who is working toward a future in hospitality.
That is the spirit behind the Lawrence J. and Viola M. Raleigh Hospitality Scholarship giving campaign, Sixty-Six in Twenty Twenty-Six. The campaign invites supporters to help endow the scholarship by December 26, 2026, with gifts centered on a meaningful number: $66.https://nsulafoundation.com/scholarships/raleigh/
For Hospitality Management and Tourism students at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, scholarship support can mean fewer financial barriers, more time to learn, and a stronger start in a field built on service, skill, and human connection. For Louisiana’s restaurants, hotels, caterers, venues, attractions, and food service companies, it is also a direct investment in the future workforce that will carry the industry forward.
Why this scholarship matters to hospitality students at NSULA
Hospitality is one of the most practical fields a student can choose. It asks for technical knowledge, people skills, cultural awareness, quick problem solving, and steady professionalism under pressure. Students in Hospitality Management and Tourism at Northwestern State University learn to think about guest experiences from start to finish, whether that guest is sitting down for dinner, checking into a hotel, attending a festival, or visiting Natchitoches for the first time.
A scholarship can support that journey in a very real way.
It can help a student stay enrolled when costs rise. It can reduce the need to take on extra work hours during a demanding semester. It can help cover the gap between ambition and access. For students balancing classes, jobs, family responsibilities, and career goals, that kind of support can provide breathing room.
The Lawrence J. and Viola M. Raleigh Hospitality Scholarship is especially meaningful because it connects student success with a field that depends on generosity. Hospitality is not only about service at a table or welcome at a front desk. It is about care, preparation, attention, and respect. A scholarship rooted in that same spirit sends a clear message to students: their goals matter, and their community is behind them.
That message has power.
Students who feel supported are more likely to stay focused, build confidence, and see themselves as future professionals. They are more likely to imagine a long-term place for themselves in restaurants, hotels, tourism offices, event venues, culinary operations, and food service leadership. They are also more likely to give back when their own careers take root.
What Sixty-Six in Twenty Twenty-Six is working to achieve
The goal of Sixty-Six in Twenty Twenty-Six is simple and lasting: endow the Lawrence J. and Viola M. Raleigh Hospitality Scholarship by December 26, 2026.
Endowing a scholarship changes its reach. Rather than relying only on one-time gifts that are spent and gone, an endowed scholarship is designed to support students year after year. The fund remains in place, and a portion can be used for awards over time. That structure helps create a dependable source of student support for future Hospitality Management and Tourism majors at NSU.
The December 26, 2026, goal gives the campaign a clear timeline. It also gives alumni, friends, businesses, and community partners a shared target. Supporters do not have to wait for a large gala or a once-a-year appeal. They can participate now through a gift that is easy to understand and easy to share.
The heart of the campaign is the $66 gift.
It is large enough to matter, but approachable enough for many people, groups, and businesses to participate. One gift helps. Repeated gifts help even more. A restaurant team, hotel staff, catering crew, tourism partner, alumni group, or family can all make the number their own.
A $66 contribution can be:
A personal gift from someone who believes in hospitality education
A tribute from a food or hospitality business
A team effort where several employees contribute together
A recurring commitment through the campaign period
A way for alumni to honor the education that helped shape their careers
The amount is clear, but the impact grows when many people take part.
Why Louisiana food and hospitality businesses should participate
Louisiana’s food and hospitality culture is one of the state’s greatest strengths. It shows up in family-owned restaurants, hotel lobbies, festival grounds, seafood kitchens, historic inns, bakeries, catering operations, convention spaces, and tourism experiences that visitors remember long after they leave.
That culture needs talented people to sustain it.
Hospitality Management and Tourism students at NSULA are preparing for careers in the same industry that many Louisiana businesses depend on every day. They study service, operations, management, tourism, planning, communication, and guest experience. They are not abstract future workers. They are future managers, event planners, restaurant leaders, tourism professionals, entrepreneurs, and community ambassadors.
For food and hospitality businesses, supporting this scholarship is a practical investment. It helps strengthen the pipeline of educated, motivated graduates who understand both the business and human sides of hospitality.
A business contribution also tells students something powerful. It tells them that the industry sees them. It tells them that local restaurants, hotels, venues, and tourism partners want them to succeed. It helps connect classroom learning with real-world opportunity.
Participation does not have to be complicated. A Louisiana hospitality business could support the campaign by:
Making a $66 gift in the business’s name
Inviting staff members to participate with individual $66 gifts
Matching employee contributions during a set period
Dedicating a special menu item, room night, or event proceeds to the scholarship
Sharing the campaign with vendors, guests, alumni, and community partners
Encouraging owners and managers to make personal gifts
The best approach is the one a business can sustain with pride.
For a small restaurant, that may mean one $66 gift and a note of encouragement to students. For a hotel group, it may mean a larger commitment built from multiple $66 gifts. For a caterer or event venue, it may mean tying support to a special date or seasonal promotion. Every contribution helps move the scholarship closer to endowment.
Natchitoches gives the campaign a special sense of place
Northwestern State University’s home in Natchitoches adds depth to this campaign. Natchitoches is known for history, hospitality, festivals, local food traditions, and a strong sense of place. Students who learn hospitality and tourism there study in a community where visitor experience is not just a classroom topic. It is part of everyday life.
That setting matters.
Hospitality education becomes more meaningful when students can see how tourism, food, culture, lodging, and community identity connect. A visitor’s experience might include a local restaurant, a historic district, a hotel stay, a campus event, a riverfront walk, a holiday celebration, or a conversation with someone who knows the area well. Each moment contributes to how people remember a place.
NSU students preparing for hospitality and tourism careers can carry those lessons into communities across Louisiana and beyond. Some may stay close to home. Others may work in larger markets. Some may build careers in food service, lodging, events, destination marketing, or tourism development. The scholarship supports them before those paths are fully formed.
That is the value of investing early. It helps students continue their education while they are still discovering where their talents fit.
Endowed scholarships help support students beyond one graduating class
A one-time scholarship can change a student’s semester. An endowed scholarship can help shape a program’s future.
That long view is one of the main reasons the Sixty-Six in Twenty Twenty-Six campaign matters. The goal is not only to raise funds for immediate visibility. The goal is to build a lasting source of support connected to the Lawrence J. and Viola M. Raleigh name.
When a scholarship becomes endowed, it can keep serving students long after the campaign deadline passes. Future students may receive support because people in 2024, 2025, and 2026 chose to act. That is a meaningful legacy.
A restaurant owner in Louisiana could support a future hotel manager. A caterer could support a future event planner. A hotel operator could support a student who one day leads guest services, opens a restaurant, or promotes Louisiana tourism to new audiences.
The scholarship becomes a bridge between today’s industry and tomorrow’s leaders.
How supporters can help the campaign grow
The most direct way to support the campaign is to make a gift in honor of Sixty-Six in Twenty Twenty-Six. The signature amount is $66, but the campaign can welcome many forms of generosity. Some supporters may choose to give more. Others may give more than once before December 26, 2026. Businesses may organize group participation around the number 66.
Supporters can also help by making the campaign visible. Awareness matters because scholarship campaigns grow through trust, repetition, and personal connection.
Here are practical ways to help:
Share the campaign with alumni who studied hospitality, tourism, business, family and consumer sciences, or related fields
Invite Louisiana restaurant and hotel owners to participate
Encourage local food vendors, caterers, and event professionals to give
Connect the campaign with community events where hospitality is already on display
Ask professional associations or trade groups to spread the word
Mark December 26, 2026, as the shared endowment goal
The message can stay simple: a $66 gift helps support future hospitality leaders at NSULA.
A shared investment in future hospitality leaders
The strongest hospitality communities are built by people who understand care. They train the next person. They open doors. They notice potential. They pass along skills that cannot be learned from a textbook alone.
For Louisiana food and hospitality businesses, this is more than a charitable gift. It is a chance to stand with the students who may one day staff kitchens, manage properties, plan events, welcome travelers, build businesses, and strengthen the state’s reputation for hospitality.
A $66 gift is simple. The deadline is clear. The purpose is lasting.
If hospitality has shaped your business, your career, your community, or your life, this campaign is a meaningful way to give that opportunity forward. Make the gift, share the campaign, and help NSU hospitality scholars build the future they are working toward.
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