November 14, 2007
Students who received endowment dollars to assist with their
tuitions during the 2007-2008 academic year attended student
scholarship receptions on November 13 and November 15 on the Staten
Island and Queens campuses. The receptions served to educate
students about the origins of their scholarship dollars and foster
in them a sense of gratitude for their donors.
Photo Gallery
Both first-time scholarship recipients and those who have
received scholarships in past years were invited for a light dinner
and the opportunity to hear remarks from Theresa Cantarella ‘73NDC,
‘77GEd in Staten Island and Dr. Adrian Fitzsimons ’68Ed, ’71MBA and
John Clarke ’55CBA, ’57L in Queens.
Cantarella, Fitzsimons and Clarke all shared compelling stories
about their own involvement in raising funds to benefit St. John’s
students throughout their tenures at the University. After
candidly sharing their stories, the speakers were presented with
small gifts of appreciation for their work on behalf of
students. Attendees were then given the opportunity to mingle
and ask questions about their scholarships.
Students who participated were both grateful for their own
scholarships and inspired by the stories they heard. “A
scholarship obviously alleviates financial need but it’s also good
to see that people that left St. John’s still care so much for the
institution that they give back financially because of the
experience they had here,” commented Pedro Gomez ’09TCB.
Receiving a scholarship means a lot to Melissa Victor ’08C who
plans to go to medical school one day. “It’s lifted a burden
off of me,” she said. “I’m able to pay for school—tuition,
books and everything. It’s amazing. I can’t wait to do
it [establish a scholarship] myself someday.”
According to Saskia De Caires, director of Donor Relations, this
is the first time that the University is holding this kind of
reception, the goal of which is to expand students’ understanding
of what it means to receive a scholarship. “Many students do
not understand the distinction between endowments, University and
federal aid,” she explained. “We want them to understand that
alumni and friends of the University established these scholarships
because they want our students to achieve their goals.”
And it seems that the lesson was learned; students are not only
grateful but view scholarships as another way that St. John’s is
encouraging their success. Graduating senior, Masood Syed
’08CPS said, “It’s a great thing to anticipate finishing and
receive a scholarship on top of it. When you finish you have
a sense of accomplishment because you actually received something
during your studies. You didn’t go unnoticed. Someone
recognized your academic achievements.”