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Scholarship endowments put students first

Gayle and Eric Gerdes wanted to do something different for Gayle’s mother, Elaine Parker, for Mother’s Day this year. They were interested in honoring her many years of service teaching kindergarten and first grade. After calling Glenda Erwin, interim vice chancellor for university development, they decided to establish an endowed scholarship in Parker’s honor.

Encouraging the establishment of scholarship endowments at the university is an important part of putting students first at LSUS by helping address the challenges of financing their education. With more than 80 percent of students receiving some type of financial aid, private support through the establishment of scholarships is vital to ensure students have access to affordable higher education.

Chancellor Vince Marsala and the staff of the University Development Office have placed a high priority on developing scholarship opportunities for students to help ease their financial burden. One of the ways this is done is by helping donors honor or remember someone, or to celebrate a significant event in their lives through the establishment of an endowed scholarship.

“We believe that investments in scholarships are an investment in our community’s future leaders,” said Glenda Erwin, interim vice chancellor for university development. “More than half of our graduates stay in our area after they graduate. They become our teachers, physicians, attorneys, accountants, company founders and community leaders.”

Establishing a scholarship not only supports a student in need of financial assistance, but also provides an opportunity to commemorate what is important in a donor’s life. Donors may assist in drafting the criteria for a scholarship and may tailor the scholarship to suit their personal interests and passions. Scholarships can provide incentives to attract the brightest high school students, reward students for academic success while attending LSUS or help students with special needs.

“University supporters are increasingly interested in creating permanent scholarship endowments,” Erwin said. “They like the fact that creating an endowment will help students for many years to come and future generations will benefit from these special ‘honor’ gifts.”

Friends and family were instrumental in creating the Jimmie Smith Endowed Scholarship in Education. The scholarship was established in 2001 to honor Dr. Jimmie N. Smith, a longtime faculty member at LSUS, by his wife, Gwen, his brother, Charles, and his sister, Sue Hortman, as well as family, friends and colleagues.
Gwen Smith, who was also a faculty member at LSUS, wanted the scholarship to help students studying psychology, where for many years her husband taught and served as department chair.

David McGivney, of Dallas, wanted to honor his friend Roddy Spigener, who died earlier this year. Spigener was an LSUS graduate and McGivney thought establishing the scholarship would be a fitting tribute.

“David called wanting to discuss the possibility of starting a scholarship in Roddy’s honor,” said Stuart Parkerson, director of annual support. “We worked with him to set up an endowment account in the LSUS Foundation and helped provide information on how other people could support the scholarship.”

McGivney began sending letters about the scholarship to mutual friends and acquaintances asking them to help fund the endowment. Soon, donations started to come in and the endowment began to build.

“Establishing the scholarship for Roddy allowed his friends and family to participate in establishing a perpetual memorial to someone they loved dearly,” McGivney said. “By using an endowed scholarship, we provided a means to offer future generations of students the opportunity to obtain an excellent education at LSUS, just as Roddy had. Basically, we thought the ability to offer the gift of knowledge to others through Roddy’s memory would be a rather remarkable legacy.”

“While both our students and community benefit from the support of scholarships, it is ultimately the donors who receive the greatest gift – the knowledge that their support has had a lifelong impact by helping someone receive the gift of an education,” Erwin said.

The Development Office is available to assist scholarship donors in many of ways including creating brochures, sending letters to those interested in supporting endowments, and providing publicity for scholarships.

For additional information on creating an endowed scholarship, contact Parkerson or Erwin in the LSUS Office of University Development at 797-5257 or go online to www.lsus.edu/foundation.