Jerry Alexander Gorman lived a life dedicated to his passion for the professional beauty industry. As a young man, with a new family to support, he took evening classes to become a licensed cosmetologist, while working full-time during the day. His perseverance for success did not stop there. After working for years as a hairdresser, he soon opened his first salon, and many years later became a national sales manager for a major manufacturer of salon and home beauty products. After years of experience, he channeled his love for the industry and decided to give back by becoming a successful and beloved educator.
In that spirit, his family formed the Jerry Alexander Gorman Foundation in his memory in 2015. The foundation was created with its main emphasis on awarding scholarships for students, specifically to those living in lower income families, to support their education to any discipline within the professional beauty industry.
The Jerry Alexander Gorman Foundation “The Passion to Succeed” Student Scholarship is awarded through the Beauty Changes Lives Foundation and is open to newly accepted or currently enrolled students in a cosmetology, barbering, hair design, esthetics or nail technology program that leads to licensure in the U.S.
Three recipients received the $3,300 scholarship that will support the payment of outstanding tuition through their designated discipline.
Summer 2022 Winners
Maisey Considine – Cosmetology
Aveda Institute in Boise, ID
Maisey Considine is a cosmetology student at the Aveda Institute in Boise, Idaho. Seven years ago, she moved to Wisconsin and met her now husband and started a family. During her pregnancy, she developed Hashimoto’s disease, which is an autoimmune conditions that affects her thyroid.
At that time, she started practicing makeup artistry professionally, and found it thrilling to transform that person sitting in her chair and bring out their amazing characteristics and being there when they see themselves for the first time is thrilling.
She decided to go back to school to become a cosmetologist to diversify her skills and to learn more ways to convert her passion to help others. She loves that she can use her skills to show that “you are worth fighting for and that your life makes a difference, it makes a difference that you are here, and it makes a difference that you are doing what you’re very best at and I just want to make people find that.”
Winning this scholarship would help aid in her medical bills, being a one income household that moved across country, and would alleviate the financial burden of going back to school and get her closer to her career and her ability to bring happiness to others.
You can check out her winning video submission HERE.
Terry Keller – Barbering
Barber Student at Innovate Salon Academy in South Plainfield, NJ
“By the time I reached 18, I was literally just thrown out into the world, and I had to figure out a lot of things on my own,” Terry starts his video submission. He confesses that he was shot at, he had to overcome many obstacles including two back-to-back car accidents that injured his spine.
At the time, he was working at a juvenile detention center, which needed him to be healthy. Terry found himself out of commission for three years. While going through physical therapy and training, he decided to take a leap of faith and start a new career in the beauty industry. Terry says he is very driven and is jumping into this experience with everything he has. He can’t wait to make people smile by bringing out their beauty and ready for the world. I look forward to a new journey, a new chapter and believes that every obstacle has brought him to this moment, and he can’t wait to make the most of this experience.
You can check out his video submission HERE.
