Author: Josh Medore | Photo courtesy of Zoba Family
As David Zoba rode with his mother from their home in Warren to the campus of Harvard University, he had the realization of how great her achievements really were.
Barbara Ann Zoba dropped out of high school when she was 16, choosing to raise David over finishing out high school and almost assuredly being named valedictorian. In the coming years, she’d raise David and his three siblings, earn her GED and then commute to Cleveland to earn her dental hygiene degree. By the time of that road trip to move David into the dorms at Harvard – where he would play quarterback for the Crimson – Barbara Ann was just 34.
“Neither our mother or father, Carl Zoba, went to college, but both were determined that all of their children would, and in fact each of has earned a college and post graduate degree,” David says.
It was his parent’s accomplishments that inspired him and his sister, Joy Mistele to start a scholarship fund with the Community Foundation, supporting young women graduating from Warren G. Harding High School.
“We started the fund to provide scholarships to young women who have had difficult circumstances but who want to elevate themselves through education and have the grit to do it,” David says.