Investing in Students
June 2007
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Making a Difference in the Moshannon Valley
David and Jane Zazworsky reach out to their home region with Trustee Scholarships - Sisters in Giving
Kappa Alpha Theta becomes the first Greek group to create a Trustee Scholarship
Message from the Chair
As summer begins, more than 8,000 brand-new Penn State graduates are starting their first jobs, preparing for the next stage of their education, and planning bright futures. And for many, none of this would have been possible without the support of scholarships. Over the last four years, Investing in Students has shared with you the stories of young people who have flourished with the help of philanthropy and the donors whose generosity and vision are creating new opportunities for Penn State students.
And now we’re graduating, too. This will be the last issue of Investing in Students. As the University prepares for a new campaign, our newsletters will be updated to reflect the campaign’s themes and goals. For those of you who have enjoyed these inspiring stories about scholarship recipients and donors as much as I have, you can look forward to learning even more about student support in the months and years ahead. The need for scholarships is more urgent than ever, and ensuring student opportunity is the campaign’s top priority.
The Trustee Matching Scholarship Program, which has been featured in many issues of Investing in Students, will be continue into the campaign. If you have not yet taken advantage of this groundbreaking program, through which Penn State and donors become partners in supporting students across the University, I would urge you to consider joining Paige and me by leveraging your gift with the program’s matching funds.
In this issue, we feature stories that show how the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program can help donors achieve many different goals. David and Jane Zazworsky want to bring hope and opportunity to students in the Moshannon Valley, while the sisters of Kappa Alpha Theta have found that fundraising for their Trustee Scholarship endowment – the first established by a Greek organization – has brought them even closer together.
It’s been a pleasure and an honor to share stories like these with you over the last few years. Thank you for your thoughtful responses to our newsletter, for your deep commitment to Penn State, and above all, for the gifts that so many of you have made to scholarships. You’re proving that there is no better investment than the future of Penn State students.
Sincerely,
Art Nagle
Chair, National Council on Penn State Philanthropy
Making a Difference in the Moshannon Valley
David and Jane Zazworsky reach out to their home region with Trustee Scholarships
The last few decades have been hard for the Moshannon Valley. When David and Jane Zazworsky were growing up there back in the 1950s, young people could find work in local mines or factories, but as the economy has shifted away from manufacturing, good jobs have grown scarce, and students don’t have as many options. The Zazworskys are hoping to change that. By creating four Trustee Scholarships for graduates of Moshannon Valley High School, the couple is opening up new choices and brighter futures for young people in the region.
“If students have the ambition and the ability to go to college, then we want to help them to achieve their goals,” says David, a native of Smithmill, Pennsylvania, who received a B.S. degree from Penn State in 1962. “Education allowed us to get where we are in life, and education is the best way to create opportunities for young people in the Moshannon Valley.”
David was the first in his own family to earn a college degree. The son of a coal miner, he worked briefly in a cigar factory before enlisting in the U.S. Army. David attended Penn State on the G.I. Bill and began working for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) soon after graduation. Over the next three decades, he rose through the ranks, serving as the Commonwealth’s deputy secretary of transportation for highway administration during the last five years of his career. In 1991, David retired from PennDOT and became a transportation consultant whose clients have included the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and Penn State itself.
PennDOT helped David to find more than a long and successful career; it also helped him to find a partner in life. It was during his time with the Clearfield district office that he met Jane, a native of Houtzdale who also worked for PennDOT. The couple, who live in State College, just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. “We have had a wonderful life together,” says Jane. “We’ve worked very hard for what we have, but now we’re able to share it with others.”
The four Trustee Scholarships that the Zazworskys have established are also a way to honor their families. Two endowments are memorials to their parents, Frank & Anna Zazworsky and Gilbert R. & Grace R. Beck, while a third recognizes David’s disabled sister Nellie Ann Zazworsky, who lives in a personal care home in Brisbin. “Nellie Ann wasn’t able to continue her education beyond the eighth grade, and she has led a very quiet life,” says David. “Jane and I wanted to do something for her, so that she would be remembered in perpetuity by all the students who receive this scholarship in her name.”
The couple also created the David E. and Jane A. Zazworsky Trustee Scholarship. It’s the second award at Penn State to bear their names: they were among the first to create an endowed position scholarship for the Penn State men’s basketball team. The Moshannon Valley scholarships have a special place in their hearts, though. “Where we come from, families are struggling,” says Jane. “Many parents can’t earn enough to provide for their children’s basic needs, let alone an education. Our scholarships will help eight to twelve students a year to break that cycle.”
Michael Baughman is one of the first recipients of the Gilbert R. and Grace R. Beck Memorial Trustee Scholarship. A 2005 graduate of Moshannon Valley High School, Mike is studying secondary education at Penn State Altoona. He’s the first in his family to go to college, though he hopes that his younger brother will follow in his footsteps. “My father is a driller, and money has never been plentiful,” says Mike, who helps to pay for school by doing maintenance work during the summers. “The scholarship from the Zazworskys has eased the financial pressure on my family, and I can focus on preparing for a career as a teacher.”
David and Jane are now working with the staff at Moshannon Valley High School to make sure that other students like Mike are aware of the Trustee Scholarships. “We want to give hope to these young people that they can make life better for themselves, their families, and their communities,” says David. “We want them to know that even though times might be tough in the Moshannon Valley, there are people who want to help them succeed.”
- For more details about the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program:
http://www.psu.edu/trustee
Sisters in Giving
Kappa Alpha Theta becomes the first Greek group to create a Trustee Scholarship
When the Beta Phi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta held their Diamond Jubilee last year, they were celebrating much more than 75 years on the University Park campus. Thanks to the values that have kept the sisters strong for generations, Penn State’s first sorority became the first Greek group to create a Trustee Scholarship endowment.
“As Thetas, we all learned the importance of giving back, of making a difference in the world,” says Joyce McLean, a 1957 College of Education alumna who helped to lead the fundraising effort. “By creating the Kappa Alpha Theta Trustee Scholarship, we’re building on the beliefs that we all share. We wanted to establish a legacy for our own group and set an example for other fraternities and sororities.”
The notion of creating the scholarship arose during preparations for the Diamond Jubilee. Marilyn Jenkins, a 1958 College of Health and Human Development alumna who co-chaired the event, says, “We were planning all these ways of commemorating our past, but it was also a perfect moment to look toward the future.”
During the five months leading up to the May 2006 celebration, McLean and other members sought donations from their fellow Thetas for the scholarship fund. As the clocked ticked down to the Diamond Jubilee banquet, the group was still $10,000 away from the $50,000 minimum required to create a Trustee Scholarship.
“On the night of the dinner, just before I was about to make an announcement to the group about the scholarship, a member came up to me and asked how much more we needed to reach our goal,” recalls McLean. “I told her, and the next thing I knew, she had written out a check that put us over the top.”
McLean was able to announce to the 242 sisters who gathered for the Jubilee that Kappa Alpha Theta had just become the first Greek organization to endow a Trustee Scholarship at Penn State. The first Kappa Alpha Theta Trustee Scholarships were awarded last fall. Any student who meets the program’s criteria is eligible, not just Thetas.
“So many students can’t afford to join sororities, let alone pay tuition,” says McLean, who created her own scholarship in the College of Education several years ago. “We wanted this endowment to help students whose financial circumstances might prevent them from having the same wonderful experience that all of us had at Penn State.”
Thetas are continuing to send in contributions to the fund, and Jenkins hopes that it keeps growing for years to come. “Kappa Alpha Theta is for a lifetime, and we want this scholarship to go on for many lifetimes,” she says. “We want other generations of Thetas to support this fund and make our legacy their own.”
- For more details about the Trustee Matching Scholarship Program:
http://www.psu.edu/trustee