{"id":4565,"date":"2021-07-10T19:45:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T19:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maderatribustg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=4565"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:22:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:22:43","slug":"scholarship-sisters-in-law-retiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/scholarship-sisters-in-law-retiring\/","title":{"rendered":"Scholarship sisters-in-law retiring"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Each year, Deirdre Collodi-Bishel and Joyce Tucker, who are sisters-in-law, do what they can to get as much scholarship money as possible to graduating seniors.<\/p>

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This year, the duo helped students collect about $800,000 in scholarship money.<\/p>

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However, the dynamic duo had their final graduating class this year because they are retiring after working for the past 13 years.<\/p>

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Bishell has been working with seniors and scholarships since moving to the Madera South Career Center in 2007. Meanwhile, Tucker has also been helping Madera High School seniors since 2007.<\/p>

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\u201cIt\u2019s been a rewarding experience,\u201d Bishel said.<\/p>

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This year, Tucker collected almost $700,000 in scholarship money while Bishel\u2019s number was almost $200,000. However, in most years, the duo raises more than $1 million for the seniors.<\/p>

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\u201cI feel bad we couldn\u2019t get out more,\u201d Bishel said. \u201cWe were so busy testing and dealing with reps so much, we couldn\u2019t put more time into the scholarship.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cI\u2019m so super proud of our community that does the hard work for the scholarships,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cWhen the kids come in with their scholarship information, they seem so weighted down. You know they stayed up all night putting it together.\u201d<\/p>

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Bishel started off in special education in 1985. She also helped build Martin Luther King Middle School and then took over the Coyote Copy Center for a few years. She moved to the WorkAbility program getting special needs students meaningful jobs. Then, Bishel moved to the MSHS career center and learned the scholarship ropes from Tucker.<\/p>

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\u201cWe have shared many trips delivering the applications to our wonderful donors,\u201d Bishel said. \u201cWe have expanded the program with much nurturing. Joyce and I share most scholarship work, taking turns every other year with some of the mailings.\u201d<\/p>

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Tucker also began in 2007 at the Madera High School career center after spending the previous two years as the school\u2019s parent liaison.<\/p>

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\u201cBefore that, I worked part-time at Berenda Elementary School,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cPreviously, I volunteered at three elementary schools, two junior high schools and both high schools. I was volunteering at MLK and they thought I worked there because that\u2019s how much I worked there. I also coached at the elementary level, junior high level and high school. I was the head coach of cross country at Madera.\u201d<\/p>

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Although a decision to step down after so many years can be hard, the duo said that because of COVID and working over Zoom, it made it a little easier to step down.<\/p>

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\u201cIt is because of the offer,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cThe incentive and the circumstances made it like that. The district doesn\u2019t offer that to classified employees. It is hard to walk away. When you have the passion for it, you want to keep it going. You want it to be there for the kids. The kids benefit from it.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cThey gave us like a Golden Handshake,\u201d Bishel said. \u201cI\u2019m old enough to retire. It was hard when we found out we were both doing it. The hardest thing was not knowing the kids. It also made it easier to retire.\u201d<\/p>

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For Tucker, graduation is one of the hardest and emotional days of the year. However, this year was quite different.<\/p>

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\u201cUsually graduation is bittersweet,\u201d she said. \u201cYou get to know the seniors really well with scholarships, financial aid, college applications. You get to really know them about their life and dreams. With COVID, we didn\u2019t really know the kids. We didn\u2019t have that interaction.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cThat\u2019s why it made it easier this year,\u201d Bishel said.<\/p>

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However, since working in each high school\u2019s career center and having first-hand knowledge of the other, the pair said they enjoyed what they were able to do for seniors.<\/p>

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\u201cBoth being from Madera and sister-in-laws help a lot,\u201d Bishel said.<\/p>

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\u201cBeing from Madera is a help,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cYou know who the people are, you know who the clubs are and the history of the club.\u201d<\/p>

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The pair has also seen the way scholarships are handled evolve from not having a scholarship program to having counselors choose the recipients to how they do it now where the career center is the main hub for the scholarship donors and applicants.<\/p>

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\u201cWhen this first started, the kids really didn\u2019t apply,\u201d Bishel said. \u201cThe counselors just chose the winners. Now, there\u2019s no favoritism.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cI\u2019ve been on committees where they put tape over the name of the applicant,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cThey are going by what is written.\u201d<\/p>

From the scholarships, the pair have worked to put on an extravagant scholarship night to not only honor the recipients, but to also honor those who donated the scholarships.<\/p>

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\u201cWe\u2019ve had the Coyote Caf\u00e9 do the hor d\u2019oeuvres and the kids involved in the cooking,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cBefore FFA went to Madera South, they would be a part of the scholarship night. They would wear their blue jackets and walk the donors up.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cWhen I took over, at Madera South, I wanted to have student art,\u201d Bishel said. \u201cI wanted students to be the ushers. We had the ASB president be a speaker. The meal was provided by the kids on campus. I wanted it all to be student-run. That was my biggest claim.\u201d<\/p>

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There are times where the pair find scholarships tailor-made for a specific students or maybe find that diamond in the rough scholarship that hasn\u2019t been applied for, yet.<\/p>

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\u201cThere was a girl that I talked into going to Grand Canyon University \u2014 Emily Garcia,\u201d Bishel said. \u201cI told here she was perfect for it. She was able to apply a second time and she\u2019s doing great. Those stories are great and amazing.\u201d<\/p>

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\u201cAfter they apply to the scholarship, I tell them to keep a master copy,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cOne day a kid came in and asked some questions. I asked if he still had his master because no one applied for this one scholarship. I gave him the information and he came back a month later and received a $1,000 scholarship.\u201d<\/p>

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Not only do the scholarships help the graduate monetarily, but it also gives them confidence that someone believes in them. Also, by receiving a local scholarship, it might also persuade the recipient to give back, if they are able to, in the future.<\/p>

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\u201cIt\u2019s good the kids learn to give back,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cThey learn that someone made a sacrifice for them to earn this money to help them. They believe in them.\u201d<\/p>

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Now, Tucker and Bishel hopes that the person that follows in their footsteps will be equally passionate about getting seniors scholarship money.<\/p>

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\u201cIf you enjoy working with youths and seniors and want to give them all the options, this is a great job,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cI hope someone with that kind of passion comes in. It\u2019s them doing the hard work. We\u2019re just giving them the tools. Now, we pass the torch. Someone will find the passion to carry on the tradition.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each year, Deirdre Collodi-Bishel and Joyce Tucker, who are sisters-in-law, do what they can to get as much scholarship money as possible to graduating seniors. This year, the duo helped students collect about $800,000 in scholarship money. However, the dynamic duo had their final graduating class this year because they are retiring after working for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":27248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[37,50],"class_list":["post-4565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-finance","tag-schools"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}