Episode Details

After Ethan Chapin was killed in the University of Idaho murders, his family and fraternity created scholarships designed to keep his name and personality tied to opportunities for other students. The Chapin family established the Ethan’s Smile Foundation, which provides scholarships to students pursuing college, trade school or professional certification programs, with preference given to students from Conway School, the Skagit Valley area and those planning to attend the University of Idaho. The foundation describes the scholarship as a way to carry forward Ethan’s enthusiasm for life, adventure and helping others, and it has grown into a substantial memorial effort, awarding dozens of scholarships totaling more than $100,000.

Separately, Sigma Chi created the Ethan Chapin Memorial Scholarship Fund for members of the fraternity’s Gamma Eta chapter at the University of Idaho. The endowed scholarship awards $5,000 each year to the fraternity member who best reflects Ethan’s character, enthusiasm for life and the warmth he showed to people around him. Ethan’s triplet brother, Hunter Chapin, received the inaugural award in 2023, and the fund was built to continue in perpetuity. Together, the two scholarship efforts turned Ethan’s memory into something ongoing and tangible, providing financial help to students while keeping the focus on the kind of person his family and friends said he was, rather than solely on the way he died.



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