Endowment Gift Bolsters Student Research

— AND BRINGS JOY TO ITS BENEFACTORS

Allegheny College has garnered national acclaim for its excellence in engaging students in faculty-mentored research experiences — from their first year on campus through their Senior Comprehensive Project.

Donors to the Our Allegheny: Our Third Century Quest campaign have helped to set the stage for students from all disciplines to benefit from those remarkable research opportunities. During the campaign, President Emeritus Richard Cook and Terry Lahti established an endowed fund that encourages and facilitates student research and creative activity. It provides student stipends, materials and essential project-related travel assistance.

Cook says that his own undergraduate research experience with a chemistry professor was “literally life-changing.” He explains that it encouraged him to work independently, challenged him to consider questions that no one had previously answered, and pointed him toward graduate school and a career in academia.

Cook and Lahti were made honorary members of the Class of 2006, when they also were awarded the Alumni Medal for their distinguished service to Allegheny. Cook was also awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters upon his departure in 2008.

Allegheny provides unparalleled opportunities for exploration and discovery beyond the classroom, Cook says. He notes that, out of hundreds of baccalaureate colleges in the nation, Allegheny was the only one selected for the inaugural Award for Undergraduate Research Accomplishment from the Council on Undergraduate Research in 2016.

“I had the privilege of seeing it every day for 12 years with students and faculty and experiencing their activities, their presentations and their work,” Cook says. “It was invigorating to see that relationship between Allegheny’s very talented and dedicated faculty and curious, hardworking students. It is such a transformative

It was invigorating to see that relationship between Allegheny’s very talented and dedicated faculty and curious, hardworking students. It is such a transformative experience that there is no question in our minds that more and more students should have that kind of opportunity.

President Emeritus Richard Cook experience that there is no question in our minds that more and more students should have that kind of opportunity.”

Adds Lahti: “This is where lives are changed and influenced. This is where the great mentoring occurs.”

Lahti says that, over the years, she and Cook have spoken with countless Allegheny alumni who reflected on the impact of their work alongside faculty. The graduates would “share how they were able to turn the skills and what they learned into excitement in their own careers and sometimes groundbreaking achievements,” says Lahti, founder of an executive search firm for enrollment management professionals in higher education.

“Participating in undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activities embodies all that an Allegheny College education represents,” says Aimee Knupsky, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities (URSCA) and psychology professor. “It is deep engagement with an area of study that derives from a strong curriculum and active participation in shaping the field.”

Jared Jordan ’21 pursued a summer research project in paleontology with Lisa Whitenack, associate professor of biology and geology. They studied prehistoric shark teeth, measuring them to help analyze similarities and differences between species.

A biology and environmental science double major, Jordan received support for the work from an endowed research fund established in honor of Cook and Lahti in 2007 by appreciative alumni, colleagues and friends. “This study was important for me because it added valuable research experience to my resume,” Jordan says. “So not only did these gifts help me begin my research, they also helped to pave my road to later endeavors.”

Olivia Blakeslee ’21 says that she took “new confidence and new passion” from a summer research project with English Professor Ben Slote. Her research focused on American writer Wendell Berry and incorporated dynamic ways to look at what constitutes an author’s audience.

The project not only gave Blakeslee hands-on experience working independently on a long-term project, but it also showed her the value of conveying the insights she gained to others. “I learned how exciting it can be to share my findings and how important it is to speak to members of various disciplines,” says Blakeslee, an English major and journalism in the public interest minor.

I learned how exciting it can be to share my findings and how important it is to speak to members of various disciplines.

Olivia Blakeslee ’21

Jordan and Blakeslee shared their work at the Allegheny College Research Seminar Series (ACRoSS) held each summer. At each ACRoSS weekly meeting, students present short overviews of their research projects to campus and local community members then field questions. Each spring, the College also hosts the Richard J. Cook – Teresa M. Lahti Scholars Symposium to celebrate student accomplishments through presentations and other programming. (These events were not held in the spring and summer of 2020 due to health and safety measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Lahti and Cook both underscore the importance of a strong endowment to sustaining Allegheny’s distinctions, including undergraduate research.

“This is why we turned our major portion of giving to an endowment gift,” Cook says. “We wanted something that would not just make a difference today. We wanted to make a difference 10 years, 50 years from now, and the way to ensure that is to have an endowment that is preserved in perpetuity and invested in College operations and students over a long period of time.” Both Cook and Lahti come from families of modest means and received financial assistance during their undergraduate and graduate educations. They say they’ve never forgotten how their lives were changed by that help. In turn, that perspective and gratitude have helped to inspire their support of Allegheny students.

Cook also recalls “the sheer joy and satisfaction of giving” that he witnessed in alumni and trustees who again and again contributed their time and financial resources to Allegheny. He and Lahti have found that same sense of fulfillment through their philanthropy.

Says Cook: “I don’t think we ever imagined that we would give such a significant portion of our financial resources to the College, but it is satisfying. It feels good to give back to such a terrific institution and its students.”