Michigan university offering full scholarship to homeless piano player

Trent Crabtree | college.usatoday.com

A Michigan university has offered a homeless Florida man a full-ride scholarship to finish the degree he began pursuing 25 years ago.

Donald Gould, 51, became a viral sensation in late June after a video of him playing a cover of Styx’s Come Sail Away on a piano in the Sarasota, Fla. streets surfaced online. The local ABC affiliate, WWSB-TV, later picked up the video -- which received more than 100,000 views in 24 hours -- and aired a segment on Gould’s story, further adding to his fame.

Now, Spring Arbor University (SAU) is giving Gould a chance to complete his education by letting him attend the school for free.

“Offering him the scholarship was an easy decision for us to make because of who we are as a Christian university,” Malachi Crane, vice president for enrollment and marketing at SAU, said in an email statement. “We have seen countless students and lives impacted by the transformational education we provide and know that Donald has a unique gift for music that he can use to change lives.”

Gould started to develop his gift in 1990 as a music student at the Spring Arbor, Mich. college, Crane said. But Gould didn’t have enough money to complete his degree, so he left the school in 1993. He took up other jobs and started a family before falling victim to substance abuse after his wife’s death in 1998, according to WWSB-TV.

Crane said he first heard about Gould’s story on July 1 after someone sent him the link to the WWSB-TV’s news segment.

“By Thursday morning the story had been picked up by many national media outlets and we began to receive inquiries from media across the country,” Crane said.

That same morning, both Crane and Brent Ellis, the president of SAU, agreed to offer Gould a scholarship worth more than $30,000, which they said was “simply the right thing to do.”

“We both had the same thought of trying to connect with Donald and extend the offer for him to complete his degree at a time in which he was ready,” Crane said.

But completing his degree is just one step for Gould on his path to future success, Crane said. Achieving sobriety and staying off the streets is, according to Crane, Gould’s top priority.

“He is working with a Christian life coach as well as checking himself into a rehabilitation clinic to get the help he needs to stay on the right path for a sustainable, stable future,” Crane said.



Trent Crabtree is a student at The University of Oklahoma and a summer 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.