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The Annual Fund Provides Critical Scholarship Support
There were 11,235 households that supported the Annual Fund during the Our Allegheny: Our Third Century Quest campaign with gifts totaling more than $26.7 million. More than half of the Annual Fund donors gave $100 or less, says Senior Director of Annual Giving and Alumni Engagement Sara Pineo.
“The Annual Fund harnesses the collective power of thousands, each giving what they are able, to provide the College with the flexibility and resources needed to strategically invest in every area of campus,” Pineo says.
One of the much anticipated yearly fundraising innovations introduced during the campaign was Gator Give Day, which has been held annually in April since 2015 and has inspired thousands to participate. It’s developed into a clear example of the power of participation, as Gator Give Day donations, most $50 or less, have added up to nearly $2.5 million in total contributions over the years. “Gator Give Day has become an Allegheny Founders Day tradition,” says Pineo. “It has been humbling to watch this day of financial support turn into a proud celebration of all that makes Allegheny special and unique. It has breathed new life into the Annual Fund, as more than 5,400 individuals have participated, many every year, including over 80 years of Alleghenians — from the Class of 1942 to the Class of 2023, parents of current and past students, employees, and friends and neighbors in the Meadville community."
Adds Pineo: "With 40 percent of our alumni donors choosing Gator Give Day to make their annual contribution, it will continue to be critical to our efforts to inspire increased alumni participation, which will positively impact Allegheny’s national rankings.”
One of the major programs sponsored by the Annual Fund is the Annual Fund Grant program. The very first gift to support the Annual Fund Grant program was received in 2011. By 2020, more than 300 students had opened their financial award letters to find they had received one of the $5,000 personalized scholarships made possible through the generosity of alumni and friends.
Francis “Ric” Rivette ’74
Judith La Manna Rivette
Francis “Ric” ’74 and Judith La Manna Rivette, from Liverpool, New York, were among a group of the College’s supporters, including Allegheny Trustee John F. Sutphen ’78 and Jamie Lynn Sansone Sutphen ’79, who helped establish the grant program because they believe it is important to make the Allegheny experience available to students of all means and backgrounds.
“Our common bond as alums and as students is the full Allegheny experience — from showing up on campus to completing the senior comp,” says Ric Rivette. “It’s something you can talk about with alumni from any year who graduated and even with students on campus. That shared experience is one of the strengths of Allegheny.”
“Student debt has become oppressive,” adds Ric Rivette. “I had the good fortune of attending Allegheny and being able to take a Washington Semester Program. In a way like the Grant Program, the College made that happen for me without extra charge to my tuition. It was an opportunity that changed my life, one I would not have had except for Allegheny College.”
José Rodriguez ’89, now the chief diversity officer at Cabrini University, has been a longtime donor, supporter and volunteer at Allegheny, including serving as president of the Alumni Council. “There’s always something that alumni can do for the College,” he says. “It can be small gestures. Many of us have different types of talents that we can volunteer. Some of us could offer internship or externship opportunities for students, either paid or unpaid. I want to make sure that I’m providing all that I can for the institution that has provided a lot for me and truly changed the trajectory of my life both on a personal level — my closest friends are all from Allegheny — as well as financially because the College set me up on a really nice path to get a master’s degree.”
This is how the Annual Fund Grant program works: By making an Annual Fund gift of $5,000 or more, donors can elect to have a renewable Annual Fund Grant named in their honor. Then the following academic year, the
College’s Office of Financial Aid awards this scholarship to a deserving student. The grant, along with a short note about the donor, is listed on the student’s tuition bill as directly defraying the cost of their Allegheny education. In most instances, the sponsored student sends the donor a personal message of appreciation. Oftentimes, the student and donor meet and have lunch together on campus.
Shemariel Gray, a senior from Los Angeles, California, has received Annual Fund grants courtesy of Kevin W. and Lisa Fiedor Baird, both 1984 graduates from Naples, Florida. Kevin Baird is a member of the Allegheny College Board of Trustees. Gray, a political science major and communication minor, shared some of her correspondence with the Bairds, in which she tells them, “scholarship support has made the last four years of my life so much fun and so memorable.”
José Rodriguez ’89
Shemariel Gray ’21
In her letter, Gray talks about her first visions of Allegheny: “Upon visiting, two things stuck with me. First, I noticed how small and intimate the campus was. Second, I noticed how joyful and genuinely happy and involved the professors were. You could tell they really love their job and valued the students.
I applied to Allegheny, nervous and scared about the huge investment that I was about to make within myself. Not only was I leaving home for the first time, but I was also creating financial risk for my family. I have a single mom who, on her own, had to put me and my three sisters through college.
“You cannot imagine how proud, excited and relieved we both were when I not only got a job as an RA to cover the cost of boarding, but scholarships that made paying for Allegheny much more affordable,” Gray wrote. “Mainly I want to say thank you for your kindness. I hope that one day I am able to give someone the opportunity you have given to me. This scholarship has enabled me to focus on my academics rather than my financial status — a privilege that many don’t have.”
Former Alumni Council President Peggy Toman Siegle ’70, from Brunswick, Maine, says it is important to support the Annual Fund and the liberal arts education model “at a time when people doubt the value of a liberal arts education. Liberal arts colleges are facing challenging times, and it’s important that we continue these opportunities — for economic reasons and for diversity reasons — and not turn away any deserving students. It’s a priority for me.”
Peggy Toman Siegle ’70
MEET THE
MEMBER OF THE TIMOTHY ALDEN COUNCIL
He’s the youngest person ever to make a bequest to Allegheny College, and he’s the youngest member of the impactful Timothy Alden Council, having donated $1,815 to the College’s Annual Fund shortly after his graduation in 2019.
Jonathan K. Goodman earned his bachelor’s degree with a double major in mathematics and economics. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta, was heavily involved in Hillel, worked for The Campus newspaper for three semesters, was the treasurer of the Dimensions math club, and became a Center for Business and Economics fellow during his senior year.
He currently works at Zurich North America based in Boston, Massachusetts, as a middle markets underwriter.
Goodman decided to make a bequest (leaving a donation in his will) to the College at the age of 22 after weighing all the factors that went into his education and his ability to get the job he wanted immediately after graduation.
“Allegheny provided support for me every single summer I was a student,” he says.
Goodman was afforded the opportunity to participate in a number of transformational experiences through the Allegheny Gateway. In each instance, the funding was provided through the generosity of donors. Between his first year and sophomore year, he received a grant that covered the cost of his internship credit tuition as well as significantly defrayed his transportation costs as he worked at the Charles River Conservancy, a nonprofit that provides upkeep for many of the parks on the riverway in Boston and Cambridge.
Between his sophomore and junior years, Goodman worked for Vericlaim in New York City. He negotiated his pay up to $18 an hour, but that doesn’t go very far in the big city. “I reached out to Career Education and Jim Fitch helped me secure funding to cover my housing,” Goodman recalls. Then between his junior and senior years, Goodman received support to participate in an internship with Berkshire Hathaway Insurance. He also was able to spend his entire junior year abroad in Great Britain at the London School of Economics before wrapping up his senior year at Allegheny.
“Insurance was not a career path I had even remotely considered when I started at Allegheny, and by the end of my time there it was clearly the path that I wanted to take,” says Goodman.
“Vericlaim helped me get my foot in the door and understand the structure of the industry. Although insurance adjusting didn’t seem like something I wanted to do forever, it was a really fun summer and I learned a ton. My time at Berkshire was particularly valuable. It gave me a broader base of knowledge of the industry, taught me the underwriting process, and helped me grow my network.”
“These two internships combined with everything I learned at Allegheny made it incredibly easy to obtain an entrylevel position with an insurance carrier,” Goodman says. “And it became clear to me during my initial training that I was just as well prepared — if not better prepared — than my colleagues who attended specialized insurance programs. It was very clear to me that without that internship experience, I would not have gotten the job, and without the funding I received from Allegheny, I wouldn’t have been able to take the internships.”
Goodman recalls his first donation to the College was $5 contributed to the Annual Fund on Gator Give Day when he was a sophomore in 2017. Two years later, he became the youngest member of both the William Bentley Legacy Society and the Timothy Alden Council. “These were two separate decisions,” he says. “I committed to the William Bentley Society toward the end of my senior year. It’s something that I knew I wanted to do eventually, but I decided that if I had the opportunity to
