Transforming Lives

Brooklyn College Foundation Annual Report 2007–2008 Transforming Lives The First Step The doors to Brooklyn College are the doors to opportunity. Compared with other institutions of higher education, a great many of our students shoulder substantial responsibilities, and many are the first in their family to attend college. Diverse in background, interests, and ambition, they share the certainty that higher education is the way to a productive and rewarding future. For many, that future will be secured with the help of the Brooklyn College Foundation Dear Friends of Brooklyn College For students—past and present—Brooklyn College stands as a gateway to a rewarding life. They come because they want to become effective leaders in their chosen profession and engaged citizens of the world. They come because they have heard of our commitment to academic quality and to helping them reach their goals. This commitment is at the heart of who we are and what we do. We have held firm to this principle throughout my presidency and, as I leave Brooklyn College this summer, I am especially proud of what we have done together to give it life and to sustain it. Last fall, we admitted a freshman class larger and better than the year before and we were joined by forty new faculty members, bringing the number of scholars and artists we have recruited over the last nine years to 273, more than half the teaching faculty and more than we appointed in the previous three decades. We also welcomed a new Provost, Dr. William A. Tramontano, who brings proven leadership in initiating and implementing new academic programs. We recommitted ourselves to a stimulating and challenging new core curriculum. And this fall, we will cut the ribbon on the West Quad, the first new building in nearly fifty years. Much of our continuing progress is supported by the Brooklyn College Foundation. Since 2000, when we initiated the first campaign for Brooklyn College, the Foundation has raised $100 million and built an endowment. Such generosity has enabled us to support students with scholarships and grants and to expand the number of available internships. It has allowed us to attract prominent scholars to endowed chairs in departments and programs to which they bring luster and distinction. The Annual Report is a record of how the generosity of alumni and friends transforms the lives of our students—how scholarships, internships, and travel stipends affect the academic experience at the College, making it possible for students to open doors and transcend boundaries. It has been exhilarating to work with the trustees of the Brooklyn College Foundation, to draw on their expertise, diligence, and stewardship. I leave the College, confident that my successor will continue to build upon the success you have helped us achieve in these years and continue to work with you and the Foundation in assuring future generations of our commitment to excellence. Christoph M. Kimmich President Dear Alumni and Friends This year’s Annual Report covers the period July 2007 through June 2008. This was the third year of my term as Chair of the Brooklyn College Foundation, and it is gratifying to reflect on our achievements together. During this last year, the Brooklyn College Foundation continued to substantially support the College and its students. We were able to achieve this because of continuing improvements in our fundraising capacity and the generosity of our alumni. This year we raised some $11.2 million, and increased the number of gifts from 5,006 in FY07 to more than 7,600 in FY08. Gifts to the Annual Fund almost doubled. More important than our fundraising, however, is our output, which included nearly 1,500 scholarships, more than 150 Honors College stipends, Broeklundian Professorships, myriad class gifts, travel stipends, and career internships. Such tangible outcomes are enormously satisfying to me because they help our students achieve success at Brooklyn College and in their lives beyond the college experience. We could not have made such progress without the expertise and engagement of a fully committed board of trustees. I am grateful to my colleagues for their support and tireless enthusiasm. I also wish to congratulate President Kimmich and the entire academic and administrative staff of Brooklyn College on a successful year. I encourage you to join us in building the tradition of excellence at Brooklyn College. I know you will be extremely pleased by the results. Marjorie Magner, ’69 Chair Brooklyn College Foundation One Student’s Path Then the letter from Brooklyn College arrived, inviting her to join the newly established Honors Amanda Perez was at the top of her class at New College with all expenses paid—much of it through Utrecht High School. From the beginning, she was the Brooklyn College Foundation. an honors student and an active member of student “I was really thrilled when the letter came, because organizations. She volunteered as stage crew for when my mom and I visited the campus it felt like every major theater production and served as a home. I got the sense from the people I talked to— peer mediator, helping to resolve conflicts among the counselors and the faculty—that I wouldn’t be fellow students. just a social security number.” When it came time to think about college, Amanda The Brooklyn College Foundation was with aimed high. Given her record, she was an ideal Amanda every step of the way—and not only by candidate for any university suited to her ambition providing financial support. to become a broadcast journalist. The Foundation has advanced the College’s honors But there were other considerations: she was the programs in various ways, most significantly by only child of a seriously ill single mother who could establishing an endowed chair that brought to the no longer work as a teacher. Although she was aided College an outstanding intellectual historian who by a large extended family, Amanda was her mother’s led a series of intensive seminars attended by primary caregiver. Amanda’s class. Yet, mother and daughter never wavered in their In the summer after her freshman year, Amanda desire that Amanda continue her education. They took advantage of the Magner Center for Career were confident that somehow—with the help of Development and Internships, which was established financial aid and, they hoped, a scholarship—Amanda in 2003 through the generosity of a distinguished would be able to afford the right school with the best alumna. She was chosen for an internship at journalism program possible. Channel 11, where she not only covered live news Amanda applied to colleges that were noted for stories but also helped produce them. their journalism programs but were also close enough In her junior year, she spent a semester in Rome to home that she could continue to care for her —through funds that came, in part, from the mother. She was accepted at six: C.W. Post, Fordham Foundation. The trip was “eye-opening,” she says. University, the College of New Rochelle, Hofstra “I realized how important it was, especially for a University, New York University—and Brooklyn journalist, to become familiar with different cultures.” College. Most awarded her some kind of assistance: While she immersed herself in the study of Italian NYU offered the most—a package that, along with history, Amanda experienced something that she could work-study, would pay everything but $10,000 of never have felt in Brooklyn, with her heavy school each year’s tuition. load and family responsibilities—the joy of a carefree college student encountering an extraordinary world. “At the point At Brooklyn College, Amanda found the academic encouragement and guidance she needed. She was urged to take more writing courses and to aspire to be a print reporter. She studied political science as well as history to gain a deeper I really needed understanding for the stories she hoped someday to cover. Her academic adviser became something of a “guardian angel,” watching over her as she struggled with both academic and life challenges. help, the school Amanda’s dedication and hard work led her to be inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and the Golden Key International Honour Society, but she also found time to join the Television and Radio Club and to participate in the Save the Children was there for Organization. She even sponsored an American soldier in Iraq, sending him monthly letters and care packages. Her efforts crystallized in her junior and senior years. While working as an intern at the MTA program TransitTransit me, and I know News Magazine, which is broadcast on PBS and Public Access cable television, Amanda pitched, wrote, reported, edited, and produced a short documentary about George Washington and the Battle of Long Island. It earned her an Emmy Award I will always from the New York City Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Three months after the award, Amanda graduated summa cum laude, with her mother looking on. “The Emmy was great, try to be there but that my mom got to see me graduate! This was her biggest dream—she kept saying over and over to me, ‘The Lord is great.’” Amanda immediately began graduate studies in history at the for Brooklyn College. A year later she lost her mother. Insurance covered her immediate expenses. But there was nothing more—not for the rent, and certainly not for tuition for her last year of graduate school. College. I At this low point in Amanda’s life, the Brooklyn College Foundation stepped forward to help once more. “After my mom died, I was overwhelmed and so alone.

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