Annual Report

ScholarshipAdele Jean ’12High School: Boston Latin SchoolMajor: “I’ve long been interested inpublic service so I am majoring inpolitical science and plan to attendlaw school.” Adele’s public servicecareer is already impressive. AtBoston Latin, where she enrolled asa seventh-grader, she was an activemember of the Caribbean Club andStudent Council, served as a tutorfor the Saturday Success School,volunteered in the library, and ledtours of the campus.The Award’s Significance: “It feltlike my hard work at Boston Latinwas noticed and appreciated.”Proud Moment: “I’m the first in myfamily to attend college.”Words for the Topols: “This is anhonor and I am truly thankful.”Bottom Line: For 18-year-old Adele,the scholarship means she won’thave to take a work-study job, socan focus more time on academics.“And for my parents, it takes a loadoff their shoulders.”Thanks to Sidney Topol ’47 and his wife, Lillian, every year for the next fouryears, five students, including Adele Jean ’12, will receive $5,000 scholarships tostudy one of the natural sciences. The Sidney & Lillian Topol Scholarship Fund forDiversity is open to students from Boston who demonstrate financial need andrepresent a group that has been historically underrepresented in higher education.“I have a long history of trying to improve race relations,” says Sidney Topol, aleader in the telecommunications industry. “It just seems right that I help. I’m anAmerican success story. I grew up in a family with modest means.”Joan Barksdale ’66, an alumna of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics,together with her husband, Edgar, established a fund with a commitment of$108,000 to benefit students in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.The fund will provide support to five first-year undergraduate students planning tomajor in natural sciences, with preference for students majoring in mathematicsand interested in teaching. “Giving an opportunity to someone who is diligent andgifted is a privilege for us,” says Joan. “We’ve been blessed financially, and wewant to help others achieve their goals and dreams.”Graduate students teaching in the UMass Amherst writing program, which helpsundergraduates sharpen their writing skills, will benefit from a gift from CharlesMoran, professor emeritus of English, and his wife, Kay Moran, a writer. Theygave $25,000 to the Charles and Kay Moran Graduate Fellowship in Compositionand Rhetoric. The fellowship’s purpose is to help recruit and retain gifted graduatestudents. Since it was established in 2001, the year Charles retired, the fellowshipfund has grown: “More than a hundred people have given to it,” he says proudly,“and they keep giving, sending in checks large and small.”Peter ’78 and Denise Bloom ’79 have given $25,000 to the Kenneth L. O’Brienscholarship. This scholarship honors track and field coach O’Brien and is beingawarded to Commonwealth College students who participate in an intercollegiate,non-revenue Olympic sport, with preference given to cross-country and track-and-fieldathletes.Group President of Procter & Gamble, North America, Edward Shirley ’78,created a merit scholarship for Isenberg School of Management undergraduateswho have challenged themselves through international travel, internships, andother extra-curricular learning activities. His pledge of $100,000 will receive apartial match from P&G’s matching gift program.Robert Brack ’60, an alumnus of the College of Engineering, has establishedthe Robert Barker Brack Post-Doctoral Fellowship for civil and environmentalengineering research with a gift of $100,000, and also gave an additional $50,000to the Brack Scholarship for Civil and Environmental Engineering.Campus friends John C. and Elaine F. Brouillard continue to grow the BrouillardScholarship Endowment they established in 2005 with this year’s pledge of$137,500. The fund assists undergraduates in the College of Engineering who hailfrom Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, or Nantucket.88UMass Amherst • Fall 2008 www.UMassAmherstMagazine.com 89