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A Newsletter for Friends and Alumni of the University of Washington
News Stories
Scholarship Helps Medical School Students Fulfill Dreams
For Margarita Ramos, receiving a Paul Skinner Endowed Scholarship each of her four years at the UW School of Medicine has given her freedom to research global health issues rather than work and worry about school debt.
“It’s an amazing freedom to be able to do what you love and not be concerned with how you’re going to pay for it,” says Ramos. In 2004, she spent five weeks in Peru researching disease risk factors of female sex workers. She plans to return there in March to study foodborne and waterborne parasites. Ramos will graduate from the School this spring.
During the Campaign for Washington — the UW’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign — local businessman and philanthropist Paul Skinner established an endowed scholarship fund to benefit medical students. He recently created a second endowed fund to help even more students.
“Ever since I was a child, I was taught that part of your responsibility in life is contributing to your community,” says Skinner, a former UW Regent and UW Medicine Board member. “It’s something I want to pass on to my children.”
Since the creation of the Paul Skinner Endowed Scholarship Fund, UW Medicine has awarded 111 Skinner Scholarships. It’s not uncommon for a School of Medicine student to graduate with a large debt load, and scholarship programs like the one created by Skinner help to reduce that burden.
Skinner’s commitment means a lot to Duc Ngo, who moved with his family to Seattle in 1993 after living for four years in a refugee camp in Malaysia. The first in his family to graduate from college, Ngo is now a second-year medical student and a Skinner Scholarship recipient.
“My family and I are recent immigrants, and like many before us, we have that mentality of the American dream,” says Ngo, who was born in Vietnam. “You’re here in the land of opportunity. There’s a lot of hardship my family went through and the least I could do was to get an education and be a productive member of society.”
Ngo has worked hard to get where he is today, and says he appreciates that other people, including Skinner, have placed faith in him. “It feels good to know there’s someone who is putting their money into your education and believes in you.”
For more on the School of Medicine, visit www.uwmedicine.org.
Guggenheim Hall Renovation Takes Flight
The Daniel Guggenheim Hall of Aeronautics opened in 1930, the same year the UW awarded its first degrees in aeronautical engineering. Since then, the field of aeronautics has changed dramatically, but Guggenheim Hall, home to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, changed very little. Until recently.
When the Tudor-Gothic building was dedicated, the UW’s student newspaper called it “architecturally perfect.” While the building’s exterior remains timeless, its infrastructure did not keep up with the times. Corroded pipes and outdated electrical outlets hampered the department’s instructional and research abilities.
A renovation is now underway, thanks to support from the state and private contributors. Edward Bock (’61), former vice president of Lockheed Martin, kicked off the private funding campaign, which is still underway. Robert R. Larson (’49), former chief of technology at Boeing, and Michael J. Denton, a vice president of engineering at Boeing, recently have made major gifts of support.
“Many of the great aerospace engineers of the past 75 years have studied in Guggenheim Hall. These individuals wrote the history of aeronautics and astronautics in this country,” says department chair Adam Bruckner. “Guggenheim Hall will produce even more legendary engineers when we bring the educational and research spaces into the 21st century.” The project will include new instructional labs and classrooms, and is expected to be completed for the beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year.
For more on Aeronautics and Astronautics, visit www.aa.washington.edu.
Three decades of dynamic fundraising for UW graduate students put the Seattle Chapter of Achievement Rewards for College Scientist (ARCS) in the spotlight November 1 when the Washington chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals recognized ARCS among its 2006 honorees for National Philanthropy Day.
ARCS, a national volunteer women’s organization, is dedicated to helping the best and brightest graduate students in the country by providing fellowships in the sciences, engineering and medicine. ARCS has provided more than $58 million in support to more than 10,000 outstanding students nationwide since its incorporation in 1958. The Seattle Chapter of ARCS, established in 1978, has supported more than 600 top graduate students at the UW, securing in excess of $9 million in gifts and pledges.
Joanne (’77) and Bruce (’75) Montgomery are the latest UW friends to support graduate research at the University through the establishment of a named ARCS endowed fellowship. In the past year, ARCS and its individual members, including Dottie Simpson, Vicki and Gary (’69) Glant, Micki (‘73) and Bob (’65) Flowers, Becky and Jack Benaroya, the Chisholm Foundation, Camille and Jim Uhlir, Elizabeth and John Rudolf, and Maggie (‘74) and Doug Walker, have made significant commitments for new endowed fellowships.
When combined with matching funds provided by the state of Washington, the UW Matching Initiative and the Graduate School, the University will establish new endowed fellowships valued collectively at more than $2 million.
“The ARCS endowments provide critical support that enables the UW to attract the very best and brightest graduate students to its programs,” says Suzanne Ortega, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School. “We are enormously grateful to ARCS for its dedication to advancing the education of outstanding scholars.”
For more on ARCS, visit www.arcsfoundation.org.
Football Enhancement Project Celebrates Football History
Construction of the Husky Legends Hall — the most visible part of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics’ (ICA) Football Enhancement Project — is scheduled to begin early this year. The Football Enhancement Project also includes renovations to the weight room and recently completed upgrades to the coaching offices and meeting space.
The Husky Legends Hall, an addition to the Graves Annex, will capture the history and tradition of Husky Football. Inside the glass-enclosed facility, visitors will be able to explore great moments and players in Husky Football history through memorabilia, trophies, photographs and video.
Ron Crockett, ICA’s campaign chair and a major contributor to the project, led volunteer fundraising efforts. “The Legends Hall will remind us of the many players and moments that make Husky Football so special,” Crockett says. “The project will also support Coach Willingham’s efforts in recruiting the next generation of great Huskies.”
More than 75 donors have contributed over $5.4 million to the enhancement project. “We have been blessed with a lot of very generous donors that love and value our program,” says Tyrone Willingham, Husky Football head coach. “These facilities will be a wonderful way to reflect the rich heritage and success of Husky Football.”
For more on Intercollegiate Athletics, visit www.gohuskies.com
“Burke 101” Puts Students in the Spotlight
Among the dinosaur bones and fossil collections of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, weekend visitors may discover a more complete learning experience, thanks to UW students enrolled in a new course called Burke 101.
Launched last fall with funding from the Seattle-based Lucky Seven Foundation, Burke 101 provides students with hands-on opportunities for sharing the relevance of scientific research with the greater community. After spending four hours in the classroom each week with graduate students serving as instructors on topics ranging from mammal evolution to archaeology, students enrolled in Burke 101 spend their Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the museum, using the Burke’s extensive collections as resources to supplement visitors’ gallery experiences.
“UW students in the gallery bring the public closer to the University and the University closer to the community,” says Burke director Julie Stein. “The students realize they have extensive knowledge that is fun to talk about with the public. But best of all, the whole experience, for students and the public, breathes life into the museum and makes it a richer place to learn.”
For more on the Burke Museum, visit www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/
When Tyler Patterson (‘95) began his 55-mile swim around Lake Washington last August to benefit the UW’s Experimental Education Unit (EEU), principal Jennifer Annable was there to cheer him on — never mind that it was 3:30 in the morning on a Saturday when Patterson jumped into the chilly waters behind the EEU’s south campus facility.
When Patterson reached the Juanita shoreline, Noelle Foster, who chairs the EEU’s annual auction, was waiting in a rowboat. She rowed alongside him as he swam for the EEU, an early childhood center that is part of the Center on Human Development and Disability (CHDD) and the College of Education.
When Patterson climbed out of the water Sunday evening, he was cheered by family and friends and the center’s staff and students, celebrating a 37-hour feat of endurance that raised $6,700 for the EEU and the families it serves.
Patterson has since remained active with the Center as a friend and volunteer. “He’s one of the nicest people you could ever meet.“ Annable says. “It was great that he raised this money, but it was also very fun getting to know him and his family and friends.”
For more on the EEU, visit depts.washington.edu/chdd/ucedd/eeu_7/7_eeumain.html
East-West Cooperation via the Northwest
A life’s work is bearing fruitful results for Herbert Ellison, UW professor emeritus of history and namesake of the Jackson School’s Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies. In addition to the publication last fall of his seminal work on former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, Ellison is seeing his dreams for the Center realized, as the UW marks the 60th year of its Russian Studies program with new developments that position the Ellison Center as a leading academic institution defining east-west cooperation in the 21st century.
According to Ellison Center director Stephen Hanson, new partnerships and continued private philanthropy — including that of Ellison’s family and friends, who joined in 2004 to endow the Center — are raising the profile of the Ellison Center and the University at home and abroad. Washington businessman and philanthropist George F. Russell, Jr. and his wife, Dion, recently created an endowed professorship in Ellison’s name to ensure permanent faculty leadership in Russian studies. Moreover, the Center’s vision for the future enticed the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER), a federal resource council funded by the U.S. State Department and private foundations, to relocate its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Seattle last summer to work in closer collaboration with the Ellison Center.
“The central element of the joint initiative between the Ellison Center and NCEEER stems from the enormous generosity of the Ellison family and the creation of the dedicated endowment for the center, which makes the UW one of only four universities in the United States with a dedicated endowment for this field,” said Robert Huber, NCEEER president, at the fall 2006 Henry M. Jackson Foundation-sponsored conference marking the formal launch of the joint initiative.
“Our goal is to see our expertise and research contribute to academic understanding and enlighten policy makers in the United States and the Eurasian states,” Hanson says. Such collaborations will go far toward fulfilling the vision of Ellison, who has devoted his career to building academic and cultural relationships among the citizens of the United States, Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
For more on the Ellison Center, visit jsis.washington.edu/ellison/
Robert (’43, ’48) and Jean (‘47) Reid’s recent pledge to create an endowed deanship in the School of Nursing comes at a time when the country is facing a shortage of not only nurses, but also nursing school faculty and leadership.
“Jean and I have both received outstanding care from nurses. They not only attend to a patient’s medical needs, but they provide comfort to patients and loved ones,” Bob Reid says. “We want to help ensure that the most vibrant nursing school in the country is in a position to continue to retain and attract top leadership,” Jean Reid adds. The Reids pledge is a tribute to the leadership of Dean Nancy Fugate Woods. The Robert G. and Jean A. Reid Endowed Deanship in Nursing will fund the dean’s position and provide the dean with discretionary resources.
The Reids, who have given generously to a wide array of UW programs, are honorary co-chairs of the School of Nursing campaign and recipients of the School’s 2006 Outstanding Volunteer Award. In 1999, they made a milestone life income gift to create the Robert and Jean Reid Endowed Fund in the School of Nursing for nursing students.
For more on the School of Nursing, visit www.son.washington.edu.
Frank (’47) and Julie Jungers are seeing the results of their philanthropy unfold at the College of Engineering, where the endowed deanship they created last year proved a powerful recruitment tool in bringing a new dean, Matthew O’Donnell, to the College this past spring.
Thanks to this endowed deanship, O’Donnell has a source of annual funding that he may use to take advantage of investments and opportunities as they occur. “The most important short-term focus is faculty recruiting,” he says of the deanship and how he has used it so far. “The College of Engineering has a real chance to make major international impact in the next five years by building on current strengths and recruiting top faculty members. Funds provided by the Jungers deanship will accelerate faculty recruiting, helping bring some of the best engineers in the country to the University of Washington.”
The establishment of several endowed deanships at the UW in recent years represents a new emphasis on the importance of discretionary resources for academic leadership. In addition to the Engineering deanship and a similar endowment established recently in the School of Nursing (see article, this page), UW Tacoma has also experienced the power of endowed deanships, thanks to the Milgard family, which endowed the deanship of the Milgard School of Business with gifts to the UW Tacoma Business School in 2003.
According to Connie Kravas, UW vice president for development and alumni relations, the establishment of the endowed deanships represents a trend whose time has come. “Deans are the critical players in selecting the faculty of the future and in supporting the stars that are already here,” she says. “A gift of that magnitude can be a catalyst to many of the things that a dean wants to accomplish. No dean wants to come into a school and just be good; the dean wants to be extraordinary and it takes some flexible funding for that to occur.”