Giving 2012

Giving THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO

SUMMER 2012

ILLUMINATING THE FUTURE Paul and Alice Duran and the GreenStar Initiative

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GreenStar’s innovative LED technology is used to illuminate streets and parking lots and uses up to 70 percent less energy than standard streetlights. The lights feature cool-to-the-touch white lights that cut through darkness like daylight.

Giving F E AT U R E D I N T H I S I S S U E :

UTSA Giving 2012, Volume 4 Website: utsa.edu/giving UTSA Giving is published biannually by The University of Texas at San Antonio for donors and friends.

The publication communicates the impact of philanthropy on the university.

President: Ricardo Romo Vice President for University Advancement: Marjie French Editor: Lety Laurel Designer: Tom Palmer Associate Editor: Guillermo Garcia Contributors: Vincent T. Davis, Heather Locke Green, Kate Hunger Photographers: Patrick Ray Dunn, Mark McClendon CONTACT US: Office of the Vice President for University Advancement One UTSA Circle San Antonio, TX 78249 (210) 458-4131 giving@utsa.edu If you prefer to receive UTSA Giving online only, please send a message to giving@utsa.edu.

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LIGHTING UP THE FUTURE

Futuristic-looking light fixtures give support to UTSA

News Briefs

Giving news and updates from around campus

UTSA’s Defining Moment

Red McCombs’ pledge of $1 million matches the single largest gift in the athletic department’s history

Honorable Service

UTSA’s Institute for Economic Development offers small business assistance to U.S. veterans

Welch Chair Signals Success Prestigious award is a great indicator of academic firepower

Passing the Ball

The Greehey Family Foundation’s more than $1.8 million in gifts includes one for football scholarships

The Intersection of Two Jacks

Businessman Jack Richmond’s ties to renowned author Jack London serve to benefit the English department

Taking Care of Business

Alumnus Jim Bodenstedt brings dollars and sense to chair the university’s historic capital campaign

2 FROM THE PRESIDENT 24 CAMPAIGN KICKOFF 26 GIVING SCENE Ricardo Romo reflects on a far from typical year

Scenes from UTSA’s historic capital campaign event

Snapshots of just some of those who are helping propel UTSA to top tier

27 BY THE NUMBERS

UTSA continues toward its capital campaign goals

28 GIVING THOUGHTS Vice President for University Advancement notes the importance of perseverance

DEVELOPMENT BOARD

WeAreUTSA.com. There you will see stories of students and faculty who represent excel-

READE D. AHRENS JOHN D. ALEXANDER, JR. STEPHEN W. ARNOLD J. DAN BATES KEVIN L. BELGRADE GLENN BIGGS JAMES H. BODENSTEDT ’96 J. DARRYL BYRD ROBERT M. CAVENDER HENRY G. CISNEROS LORETTA J. CLARKE ’87, ’90 PATRICK J. CLYNES SAMUEL G. DAWSON TRISH DEBERRY JOHN W. FEIK ALFREDO L. FLORES, JR. DON FROST PATRICK B. FROST TOM C. FROST GLORIA GALT CATHY OBRIOTTI GREEN HERIBERTO GUERRA, JR. BETTY M. HALFF ’76 ROGER R. HEMMINGHAUS GLORIA L. HERNANDEZ BRENDA VICKREY JOHNSON CLAYTON E. KILLINGER ’83 STEVEN Q. LEE EDITH S. MCALLISTER JOHN F. MCFALL JANICE L. MEYR BALOUS T. MILLER WILLIAM E. MORROW ’86 HENRY R. MUÑOZ III HOWARD W. PEAK BOONE POWELL JAMES R. REED GURVINDER P. SINGH DAVID A. SPENCER JOHN T. STEEN, JR. (VICE CHAIR) SAM B. STEVES II JULIAN H. TREVINO CURTIS T. VAUGHAN, JR. CHRISTINE B. VINA JAY R. VOGEL ED L. WHITE, JR. KENNY WILSON (CHAIR) NELSON W. WOLFF JEANIE R. WYATT ’86

lence. You will be able to view our inspirational campaign video and read about the latest

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

campaign news.

JIM BODENSTEDT ’96,

DEAR UTSA FRIENDS: Another academic year has passed, and it was far from typical for UTSA. As you know, we launched the inaugural season of Roadrunner Football to record crowds of fans eager for Division I football in San Antonio. Then, in April, we publicly introduced the We Are UTSA— A Top-Tier Campaign to raise more than $120 million for scholarships, faculty excellence, research centers and institutes, and other enriching experiences. So far we’ve raised $102.9 million toward our goal. We still have a ways to go, but I am confident based on the support we have already received that together we will meet our goal.

At the heart of everything we do at UTSA is a belief that the people of Texas deserve access to exceptional opportunities. That idea has been central to our mission since the university was created in 1969, and it is driving us forward as we reach for the highest levels of excellence now. Providing opportunities for our people to excel is what this campaign is about. It will give us a foundation that will ensure we can continue to bring top-tier experiences to our campuses.

This is the first issue of Giving where you will read the word “campaign.” It wasn’t really a secret that we were launching this first-for-UTSA effort to raise a substantial amount of funding. But the quiet phase, as it is known, allowed us to get our house in order and announce confidently that we have the support needed to achieve success. I am humbled by the many friends and alumni who have resoundingly said through their generosity that they want UTSA to be a top-tier university to benefit our state.

Through 2015, every gift that is made to UTSA will take us closer to our goal. To learn more about the campaign and our objectives, please visit our campaign website at

We have an extraordinary opportunity today to forever change the university and our region—to be the best of Texas and solidify San Antonio as a powerful, diverse city to lead our nation. When you invest in a program, a student or research at UTSA through this campaign, you truly are making an investment in Texas.

JOIN WITH US! WE ARE UTSA.

University President

CAMPAIGN CHAIR

JOHN ALEXANDER GLENN BIGGS ERNEST BROMLEY ’78 HENRY CISNEROS TOM C. FROST JR. CATHY OBRIOTTI GREEN CLAY KILLINGER ’83 STEVEN Q. LEE JOHN T. STEEN, JR. KENNETH L. WILSON JEANIE R. WYATT, CFA ’86

NEWS BRIEFS

PAYING IT FORWARD

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lumni Loretta and Jeff Clarke remain committed to ensuring students have greater access to higher education and providing an environment where students want to be.

They recently donated $1 million to establish two professorships, one in the College of Education and Human Development—named in honor of Loretta Clarke’s mother, Henrietta Frances Zezula Lowak— and another in the College of Engineering, named after Jeff Clarke’s mother, Mary Lou Clarke.

VOELCKER LEGACY CONTINUES A more than $1 million grant to the College of Sciences will fund an initiative supporting drug discovery efforts aimed at curbing and eventually curing breast and prostate cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.

The three-year commitment from the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Fund “will directly support a medicinal chemistry facility that we have initiated here on the UTSA campus,” said Chemistry Professor Doug Frantz.

That initiative is called the Center for Innovation and

After Jeff Clarke earned a B.S. in electrical engineering, he embarked on a 25-year career at Dell, where he is now vice chairman and president of the company’s Global Operations and End User Computing Solutions. Loretta Clarke earned her B.S. in physical education and then taught elementary school while earning her master’s in early childhood education.

“We were both first-generation college graduates and the opportunities we have had are a result of going to college,” she said.

“As long as there are great quality professors and there is a great curriculum and energy, then the kids can learn and that is what is going to make a difference,” added Jeff Clarke.

In 2003, the couple gave $500,000, to create two professorships: The Robert E. Clarke Jr. Distinguished Professorship in Electrical Engineering, named after Jeff Clarke’s father, and the Loretta J. Lowak Clarke Distinguished Professorship in Health and Kinesiology. At the time, it was the single largest alumni gift to the university.

“We feel that our education at UTSA was such a sound basis and foundation for all our successes both educationally and personally,” Loretta Clarke said. “We just want the same for all the kids who probably struggle to be able to afford school.”

Drug Discovery and is part of a larger global initiative.

The program will fund professors’ research as well as internships for graduate and undergraduate students.

The center is an ongoing collaboration between the university and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio to build capacity core facilities that will support and accelerate drug discovery in a host of therapeutic areas, Frantz noted.

The Medicinal Chemistry Core Facility will be named after the Voelckers, who operated a large-scale commercial cattle raising and milking operation on a piece of San Antonio’s North Side that is now the 311-acre Phil Hardberger Park.

“This particular gift will allow us to attract some phenomenal scientists into the core facility and provide us some long-term support for these phenomenal scientists to come in and get the center up and running,” Frantz said.

HEARST FOUNDATION’S GIFT

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digital media classroom, dubbed “the learning lab of the future,” is taking form thanks to a $100,000 gift from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation.

The grant will help the university build a 21st century academic library and will feature a lab with a 120-seat classroom for students to work in small groups on individual laptops while also using shared monitors that allow for project collaboration.

The lab will be the first of its kind at UTSA and is expected to be operational by the end of the fall 2012 semester.

A separate $50,000 grant from the William Randolph Hearst Endowment will be used to fund a Peer Research Coaches program, whose goal is to have students get academic assistance from their peers.

The UTSA Libraries launched the Peer Coaches program in fall 2011 with a small group of handpicked students who built the skills and knowledge set needed to serve as resources for their fellow students.

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UTSA’s

Defining

RED MCCOMBS GAVE $1 MILLION TO UTSA ATHLETICS, MATCHING THE SINGLE LARGEST GIFT IN DEPARTMENT HISTORY. PHOTO COURTESY OF SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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Moment

BY VINCENT T. DAVIS

All schools have defining moments in their “history and this is a defining moment for UTSA. ”

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ith those words last August, San Antonio billionaire entrepreneur Red McCombs announced a $1 million donation to UTSA’s Department of Athletics.

McCombs’ gift—his family also pledged to buy 1,000 Alamodome tickets for the university’s inaugural football game—matched the single largest gift in the department’s history.

His donation, which will go toward the construction of practice facilities, was announced at a Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce breakfast to challenge business leaders to support the football team. It helped launch the athletics department’s Fill ’Er Up ticket campaign to break the NCAA first-game attendance record.

Eight months later, on April 10, McCombs was among dignitaries on hand when the first shovels of dirt were turned at the groundbreaking ceremony for Phase One of the multimillion-dollar UTSA Park West campus, which lies between Loop 1604 on the north and Hausman Road on the south.

Once complete, the campus will eventually be home to all UTSA Athletics teams.

“For Mr. McCombs to step up and do that was outstanding,” said Athletics Director Lynn Hickey. “We appreciate the gift and that he’s part of our program. He has been extremely supportive; his level of enthusiasm was pretty overwhelming.”

The businessman has a history of success

with professional sports teams. He was sole owner of the Minnesota Vikings NFL franchise and brought the San Antonio Spurs to the Alamo City. He said his goal is helping UTSA reach the same heights at the collegiate level.

“I felt it was something we would see repaid many times over in the life of UTSA, to look back at this moment and the ingredients that were put in place to make this a successful program,” McCombs said. “They needed that vote of confidence.”

He noted that a large part of the success the football program has experienced is due to the groundwork laid by students who worked hard to rally for a football team, as well as Hickey’s hiring of football Coach Larry Coker, former head coach of the Miami Hurricanes, known for their winning tradition.

“This is a stamp of credibility,” McCombs said. “It is now this

university’s time to step up and give local kids an opportunity to play at home, to play in the [Alamodome] and give us a basis for creating a [great] product.”

Hickey said McCombs continues to be an important adviser to the program.

“He is the sports expert in San Antonio and the whole country,” she said.“He believes in what we’re trying to do here. I don’t know how you measure that in terms of dollars and cents.”

UTSAíS ATHLETES ARE THE BIG WINNERS

The multimillion-dollar UTSA Park West Campus will eventually be home to all UTSA Athletics teams.

GIVING 2012

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HONORABLE CHASE OFFERS BUSINESS ASSISTANCE TO VETERANS THROUGH UTSA PROGRAM

BY GUILLERMO GARCIA

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SERVICE S

AN ANTONIO BUSINESSMAN JOSE PEREZ COULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT HE WAS HEARING AT A BRIEFING ON MILITARY VETERANS. HIMSELF A U.S. ARMY VETERAN, WHERE HE WAS A SERGEANT FIRST CLASS INVOLVED IN COUNTER INTELLIGENCE, PEREZ WAS APPALLED TO KNOW THAT MEMBERS LEAVING THE SERVICE AFTER DEPLOYMENT IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN HAD UNEMPLOYMENT RATES MUCH HIGHER THAN THEIR CIVILIAN COUNTERPARTS. TRY AS THEY MIGHT, JOBS IN A TIGHT ECONOMY FOR FORMER SOLDIERS WERE NEARLY NONEXISTENT. “That was just horrible that they could not find anything, especially with the training and the skill set they had and after what they had been through” in their overseas deployment, he said. As the wars were winding down, more veterans were returning home with little prospect of finding work after their service.

It was 2009 and Perez was running his father’s landscape construction and facilities support services company. It was a briefing from the UTSA’s Institute for Economic Development on the lack of veterans’ employment opportunities in the civilian world that made him see he had more work to do.

“I had to do something to help vets who chose to be entrepreneurs,” he said.

In 2010, with assistance from the institute, Perez launched Frontline Support Solutions, whose goal is to hire able-bodied and disabled veterans and train them in construction or facilities support services jobs. Perez’s firm will then help those who are interested in starting their own business.

“That is the least I can do for these people who have given of themselves to our country,” he said.

The business started slowly. During the first year of operation, “I was bleeding red big time, making about $68,000, but then sales jumped to $1.7 million and I had two employees,” he said.

By the end of 2012, Perez said he and his staff of 10 workers—half of whom are veterans, including several who are disabled—will do about $4 million worth of business. He credits the institute for his success.

Now, more South Texas military veterans like Perez, who want to start their own small business as they return to civilian life, will have that opportunity. A $100,000 grant from Chase Bank to the Institute for Economic Development will allow its Veterans Business Development Program to expand services for veterans—whose 15 percent unemployment rate approaches double that of civilians.

Institute officials said more veterans are seeking help and that increasingly, ex-soldiers want to start their own businesses rather than continue the job search.

The bank “recognizes the tremendous sacrifices of our nation’s men and women in uniform,” said Jay

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY THOMAS PALMER

Clingman, chairman of Chase in San Antonio. “Helping veterans start their own business is a great way to honor their service and say ‘thank you’ for helping preserve our freedom.”

The program, targeting those who live in a 10-county region surrounding Bexar County, is available to men and women who have served in the armed services, reserves or National Guard.

Veterans will have access to a host of free services, one-on-one guidance, and help with developing a business plan, conducting market research and determining financial projections, according to Curtis Mohler of the institute’s Contracting Resource Center.

Because of the region’s active and retired military population, the institute is ideally positioned to help: There are about 158,000 veterans in the region, and some 48,000 military retirees call San Antonio home.

Nationally, “about 400,000 veterans will be heading home from two war fronts, 67,000 of whom will be service-disabled,” Mohler said. They will be looking to re-integrate into society, and that means finding employment or, increasingly, starting their own business.

The Chase grant will expand services to give exmilitary members business opportunities, including small business start-up information, financial planning, loan assistance, and help with government contracting and franchise ownership, said Terri Williams, the Contracting Resource Center director.

She said the program’s first-year target is the creation of eight new veteran-owned businesses and the expansion of 20 existing ones.

Perez said the program gives veterans a high level of education about setting up a small business, but does so in a way that is easily understood.

“The amount of information, training and the other services they have provided me in my business have been invaluable in helping me start my business and have it run as successfully as it has,” he said.

“The university program has been like showing me how to develop the roots, then how to water the plant and give it care, so that now the branches of the business are healthy and the whole thing is really growing.”

Jay Clingman, chairman of Chase in San Antonio

VETERANS “HELPING START THEIR OWN BUSINESS IS A GREAT WAY TO HONOR THEIR SERVICE AND SAY ‘THANK YOU’ FOR HELPING PRESERVE OUR FREEDOM.

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Welch chair to fund world-class researcher

he search for a world-class researcher, holder of the firstever Robert A. Welch Chair in Chemistry at UTSA, is well underway.

Interviews to attract a distinguished chemist whose research and leadership will further advance the university’s ongoing drive to Tier One research status began this spring and is expected to culminate in an appointment next year.

Awarded last fall, the $1.5 million gift from the Houston-based Welch Foundation, along with the university and Texas Research Incentive Program (TRIP) funding, will create a $4.1 million endowment.

Having such a highly distinguished researcher join the faculty will raise the university’s profile and attract other toplevel researchers, said Doug Frantz, assistant professor of chemistry, who is on the search committee.

“That person will not only turn heads toward San Antonio to find what we are trying to build here, but that person will also be a huge magnet who will attract younger faculty and even senior faculty as they see the commitment from UTSA and the [Welch Foundation] to attract the best and the brightest,” Frantz said.

“If you hire a great quarterback to lead a football team, that person ends up being a poster child for that team. We look at this person as the quarterback.”

The award signals recognition of the department’s progress, said Waldemar Gorski, chair of the chemistry department.

Three Tier One universities in Texas each have at least three Welch chair professors, and the endowment represents the academic firepower and potential of their departments, said Gorski. Those Welch chairs have brought name recognition that makes hiring exceptional faculty easier because they elevate their respective fields within chemistry and craft highly respected research and educational programs, he added.

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BY KATE HUNGER

“Each one of those individuals has built a program around their expertise,” Frantz agreed. “Each one of these people has transformed their department and has built a program of excellence in that area of chemistry.”

Gorski said he hopes having a Welch chair will lead to additional grants, which in turn will raise the level of research funding university-wide. That will help the department reach its goals of conducting high-level research and training the next generation of chemists for academic and industrial careers.

“The research funding helps bring students into our laboratories and train them through research, which is important for building a science-conscious society,” he said. “We hope that the Welch chair will have a positive synergistic effect on the quality of our research, collaborations and community outreach” which will lead to the department being one of the best in the state.

The hiring timeframe is open-ended to ensure a strong choice, but Franz said he hopes to have a selection made by the end of 2013. The search committee is particularly interested in candidates with research interests at the interface of chemistry and biology, an area of study that would foster a natural collaboration between UTSA, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and Southwest Research Institute.

“We want to get the best person we can to get our department to the next level,” said George Perry, dean of the College of Sciences.

The endowed chair is currently the largest in the university.

“It is an incredibly exciting thing for us,” Perry said. “It will further transform the department to a Tier One chemistry program.”

Frantz hopes his own research in medicinal chemistry, drug discovery and regenerative medicine will benefit from having such a high-level researcher

on the faculty.

“This person will be a mentor to me to allow my research to catapult to the next level,” he said.

The Welch Foundation primarily supports chemistry researchers. UTSA’s relationship with the organization began in 1993. Over time, foundation funding has grown to more than $5.8 million, supporting both individual researchers and the chemistry department, which has a total of 350 students enrolled in its bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs.

“Receiving a Welch chair is a sign of hard work and rising quality,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs John Frederick. “We really look forward to someone of national and international stature to add to the department through this Welch endowed chair.”

Striving for Tier One means enhancing the quality of educational opportunities that the university can provide its students, Frederick said.

“The opportunities you provide for students are terrifically enhanced when you have strong, nationally prominent faculty here that they can learn from,” he said. “So the Welch chair really puts us in a position to greatly accelerate that process by bringing in a very strong international scholar.”

Frederick, a chemist, recalled the first-hand impact on his college experience made by the Welch Foundation.

“When I was a student in college, I came back to San Antonio and I ended up working during the summers in a chemistry research lab at UTSA and the professor that I worked for had a Welch grant,” he said. “And so my very first research experience was basically paid for by a Welch grant. I have some personal satisfaction in seeing that UTSA now has joined other universities in Texas by having a Welch chair.”

“

If you hire a great quarterback to lead a football team, that person ends up being a poster child for that team. We look at this person as the quarterback.

”

ó DOUG FRANTZ, assistant professor of chemistry

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Passing the Ball GREEHEY FAMILY FOUNDATION’S $1.8 MILLION IN GIFTS TO UTSA INCLUDES $500,000 FOR FOOTBALL SCHOLARSHIPS

BY LETY LAUREL

Bill Greehey’s father was not happy.

His only son was already a teenager­, so it was time for him to quit school and go to work in the nearby gypsum mining mills.

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But young Bill had other ideas.

“I wanted to go to college,” he said.

Little did he realize that in displeasing his father, he’d launch a path that would take him not only to the pinnacle of the business world as CEO of a large, international energy firm, but also lay the groundwork for giving back to his community.

He would be instrumental in the creation of a transformational facility serving the homeless and also a family foundation assisting dozens of UTSA students, many of whom would be the first in their family to graduate from college.

But that would be far into the teenager’s future.

It was the 1950s in Fort Dodge, Iowa. His parents, neither of whom graduated from high school, struggled with their minimum-wage jobs. As soon as young Bill turned 11, he began working in the cornfields every summer. At 15, he worked alongside his father in the

Bill Greehey at San Antonio's Haven for Hope, a multiservice facility that provides one-stop social services to homeless individuals and families.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

gypsum mill during breaks from school. It was expected that he make the job full time as soon as possible.

“Kids in my neighborhood, no one graduated from high school,” he said, recalling his working-class roots.

“As soon as they were 16 years old, they went to work in the gypsum mills. That was kind of expected from me.”

But in junior high, he experienced the truth about his family as well as that of every other family in the neighborhood.

They were happy and content, but they were poor.

“I grew up in a neighborhood where everybody was poor so you didn’t know you were poor,” he said. “All of a sudden kids from the North Side came together and I saw a different lifestyle that I hadn’t seen before. That’s when I decided very quickly that I wanted to get an education and improve my life over what I had seen in my neighborhood.”

Because there wasn’t money to afford college,

Greehey enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he spent almost four years. Then, with the help of the G.I. Bill, he enrolled at St. Mary’s University.

Married and with two children, Greehey worked a full-time job parking cars at the Nix Hospital garage in downtown San Antonio, while at the same time signing up for a full load of college classes.

Less than three years later, he graduated with a degree in accounting.

His first job was with accounting giant Price Waterhouse, making just $450 a month. Again, his father was upset.

“He said ‘I don’t understand you. You sacrificed all this time with the military and going to college. You could be working at the mill for $450 a month.’ And I said ‘Yeah, but I’m not always going to make $450 a month.’”

They would be prophetic words.

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“I’m first-generation and I know what it meant for me to go to college and how hard it is for other first-generation students. Education was the key to my success.

You graduate from college, but the one thing you learn from college is you never quit learning.”

Within just a few years he was earning $100,000 annually working in finance for oil and gas companies.

“Then my father said ‘No one should be making that kind of money,’” Greehey said with a laugh. “I couldn’t win.”

Greehey quickly climbed to the top of the corporate ladder, becoming the founding CEO of San Antonio-based Valero Energy Corporation, which he built from a regional natural gas pipeline company into

By the Numbers:

60% 30%

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football team members that have financial need members of the football team who are first-generation college students

a Fortune 500 company and the nation’s largest independent petroleum refiner and marketer.

Today, he is chairman of the board of directors of NuStar Energy L.P. and NuStar GP Holdings, LLC, which operate 8,420 miles of pipeline, 84 terminal and storage facilities that store and distribute crude oil and refined products, and two asphalt refineries and a fuels refinery.

It is safe to say he went on to make considerably more than $100,000 a year through his career.

He stopped talking about finances with his family years ago. But he has not stopped trying to make a difference with the money he has earned.

In 2004, he set up the Greehey Family Foundation. Since then, the foundation has given $100 million to community organizations. UTSA has received $1.8 million from the foundation and the family; the most recent gift of $500,000 is geared toward student-athletes in the year-old football program who are the first in their family to go to college.

University officials note that Greehey’s generosity will have farreaching impact.

“Our students will get the opportunity to not only compete in an incredible collegiate sport, but to also fully immerse themselves in their degree programs because of Mr. Greehey’s gift,” said Athletics Director Lynn Hickey. “This gift is going to change a tremendous number of

students’ lives, and it has the ability to change the cycle of life within their families.”

Greehey’s focus is on students who are the first in their families to go to college.

“I’m first-generation and I know what it meant for me to go to college and how hard it is for other first-generation students,” he said. “Education was the key to my success. You graduate from college, but the one thing you learn from college is you never quit learning.”

The impact of Greehey’s gift is even greater because of that focus, Hickey said.

“He knows firsthand what it’s like to work through college as a firstgeneration college student,” she said. “They have a unique experience and most of them must juggle many responsibilities at the same time. This gift ensures that they won’t have to worry as much about the financial strain of education.

“Not only is the gift special, it is a long-lasting teaching moment because when a person like Mr. Greehey gives back, it shows our students that they, too, can be wonderful role models by giving back to others down the road.”

Greehey has been recognized for his contributions to education and community service. In 2006, he began working with the City of San Antonio to build a multiservice facility to provide one-stop social services to homeless individuals and

Bill Greehey was instrumental in the creation of Haven for Hope. It is just one of many outreach endeavors he has championed.

families. Called Haven for Hope, it is a state-of-the-art homeless transformation center that is the national model in the fight against homelessness. It is also the hardest and most rewarding thing he’s ever done, he said.

His interest in community service isn’t new. While at St. Mary’s, he undertook a battery of tests to see what he was best suited to do. They predicted he’d work in social services.

“So now I’m in social services,” he said. “I came around, and I made enough money in accounting to do it.”

He’s also instilled in his family a love of giving. When his granddaughter was 10, she found out about Greehey’s work with Haven for Hope and wanted to help. So she took the money she kept under her pillow, tucked it into an envelope, and gave it to him. It was only a few dollars.

“I asked her, ‘Is this all the money you have?’ She said yes, so I told her not to give it all away. She said ‘Papa, I don’t need it for anything.’”

Recalling his granddaughter’s generosity, Greehey is joyful and passionate when he talks about the work he’s done in the community.

This, he said, is his legacy.

“Nobody is going to remember how much money I made or how many refineries I bought,” he said.

“But what they will remember is the difference I made in the community.

And that’s how you should be remembered, how you give back.”

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ILLUSTRATION BY ABIGAIL RORER FROM THE FOLIO SOCIETY EDITION OF THE CALL OF THE WILD BY JACK LONDON © 2011

INTERSECTION OF TWO JACKS

BY GUILLERMO GARCIA

The intersection of Jack Richmond’s life with that of Jack London, one of the most popular 20th century American authors, began early and has lasted for decades.

The businessman’s connection with London is a tie that stands to benefit UTSA English professor Jeanne Reesman and her students.

Richmond, who considers Reesman “the preeminent London scholar in the United States,” and his wife, Laura, have donated $100,000 to continue what he terms Reesman’s “outstanding success in bringing Jack London’s literary and personal story to greater

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prominence.”

The endowment to the College of Liberal and Fine Arts will support her research on the author of The Call of the Wild, White Fang and The Sea-Wolf; stories of nature versus man and man versus man set in the large and oftentimes unforgiving world—from the Canadian Klondike gold rush to the South Pacific at the turn of the 20th century.

The gift will provide research funding. Reesman also hopes the donation will help underwrite a film festival and dramatic readings of London’s work as well as support graduate students.

Richmond, who operates 32 San Antonioarea Pizza Hut restaurants, describes himself as a conservative businessman. He nonetheless draws strong personal parallels to the avowed socialist who mocked racial inequality, criticized the use of child labor—he himself began working at age 7 to support his fatherless family—and championed working-class issues like minimum wages and an eight-hour workday.

Published in 1903, London’s classic, The Call of the Wild, is about cruel men and their sled dogs, set in the wild times of the Canadian gold rush. His stories often look at the themes of nature, brutality and the struggle to survive. But his stories are also about finding oneself, discovering one’s fundamental nature, as the hero is able to do.

The story is told from the perspective of Buck, a dog stolen from a life of relative luxury in northern California, and ends up in the anything-but luxurious Yukon Territory. Gradually, the dog turns wild, and at the novel’s end he leaves behind his once-gentle nature to roam the unforgiving countryside as the fearsome leader of a wolf pack.

London was briefly a gold prospector, but not a very successful one, Reesman said, noting that many of his topics are fictionalized accounts of events London lived through.

Reesman said that London’s most famous novel is also an allegory on race relations in late 19th- and early 20th-century America, with the dog’s life a parallel for the lives of African American slaves. The author often railed against racism but sometimes also succumbed to the restrictive racial attitudes of the day.

Yet he was one of the most well known and highly regarded 20th century authors—his popularity earned him $1 million in royalties, an unprecedented sum at the time. Reesman notes that one reason he enjoyed such worldwide renown had to do with his politics.

A MERGING OF THE MINDS Reesman met Richmond when he became the first member of the Jack London Society, a non-profit that Reesman began in 1990.

“It didn’t take me long to realize that he not only loved London, but knew quite a lot about him—he has a large collection of London’s works and he took his wife to the London Ranch in Glen Ellen [in northern California’s

Sonoma Valley] on their honeymoon,” she said.

A visit to Richmond’s corporate office on San Antonio’s North Side reveals the extent of his admiration for the iconic writer— wall-length, nearly floor-to-ceiling bookcases contain dozens of aging, beautifully leatherbound copies of London’s work, along with maps of South Pacific islands and the frigid far Pacific Northwest regions of Canada and Alaska where many of his nature stories are set. Richmond said he was smitten by the sparse, vivid and naturalistic prose.

But his admiration of London’s writing is also deeply personal—like London, Richmond grew up in a single-parent home: his alcoholic father abandoned the struggling family when Richmond was 4 years old, he notes matter-offactly.

He said he relates to a teenaged London, who as a rough and tumble eighth-grader was known as the Prince of Oyster Pirates, because he not only fished San Francisco Bay for a living, but also stole other fishermen’s catch as well.

Later in life London would become known for his legendary drinking bouts, and some of his contemporaries referred to him as the King of the Drunkards.

It was London’s affinity for alcohol that drew the most visceral connection to Richmond’s early life.

“I was drawn to London’s writing not only because I found that his writing touched my father’s heart, but also because in getting to ‘know’ London’s writing I was trying hard to get to know my alcoholic father better, even after he abandoned us.”

Growing up in the Texas Panhandle during the Great Depression, Richmond could also relate “to London’s abysmal poverty that he grew up around on the Oakland waterfront.”

Richmond said he admired the writer’s prodigious output, the result of writing 1,000 words a day: in the 16 years before his death at age 40 in 1916, he published 50 books, 190 fictional short stories and more than 500 pieces of non-fiction journalism. His works have been translated into more than 100 languages from Arabic to Mongolian.

London was also a newspaper reporter for the Hearst chain, covering the Russo-Japanese War in Korea in 1904, and the U.S. invasion of Vera Cruz in 1914 during the Mexican Revolution for Collier’s magazine. He also covered Jack Johnson’s world heavy-

Jack Richmond's affinity for author Jack London is obvious in his wall-length, nearly floor-to-ceiling bookcases that contain dozens of leather-bound copies of London's work, along with a portrait of the author.

weight boxing matches in 1908 and 1910.

The author was an accomplished photojournalist as well. His photos of the great San Francisco earthquake, the various wars he chronicled and the South Pacific waters he sailed are among the more than 12,000 photographs that still survive.

“It has been a sheer pleasure to have read and enjoyed his work all these years,” Richmond said. “And now I have the opportunity to help the College of Liberal and Fine Arts promote their meaningful endeavors.”

This issue of Classics Illustrated, featuring Jack London's work The Call of the Wild, is among Richmond's extensive collection.

Inset: A $100,000 endowment from Richmond will support UTSA English professor Jeanne Reesman's research on Jack London.

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LIGHTING UP THE FUTURE Futuristic-looking light fixtures give support to UTSA

BY KATE HUNGER

W

hen Paul Duran was 5 years old, his father sold off the last of the cows and moved the family from their Pearsall farm to a one-bedroom apartment on San Antonio’s West Side. Decades later, the move would prove enlightening for both San Antonio and Duran.

At the time, there wasn’t “enough money to turn the electricity on…so Grandma had brought some lanterns and we lived like that for three months,” he recalled.“Can you imagine the same kid who lived there lighting up the city?”

Now Duran and his wife, Alice, own GreenStar LED, which they founded in 2009, to design, manufacture and market energy-efficient, eco-friendly light-emitting diode (LED) light fixtures for commercial and municipal use around the world. Last fall, the company won a contract to replace 25,000 of San Antonio’s streetlights—one of the country’s largest municipal LED projects. Duran hopes to eventually contract to replace all of the city’s nearly 100,000 streetlights.

As part of the deal with the city, the firm moved its plant from Boerne to the West Side of San Antonio and agreed to contribute $10 to UTSA’s College of Engineering for every light fixture the firm sells the city. To date, the university has received more than $145,700 from GreenStar.

“GreenStar’s partnership with UTSA and CPS Energy is a prime example of how we are leveraging all of San Antonio’s assets to be a leader in the new energy economy,” said Mayor Julián Castro.“By linking the private and public sectors with our institutions of higher learning, we are establishing San Antonio as a center of innovation and research in 21st century technologies.”

The city and CPS Energy, the nation’s largest municipally owned gas and electric utility company, have set a goal to utilize eco-friendly, energy-saving and energy-producing technologies to make San Antonio the greenest city in Texas.That partnership dovetails with GreenStar’s effort to assist UTSA. “We want to help UTSA become a Tier One school,” said

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THE BRAWN

 

LEDs are assembled at GreenStar’s plant located on San Antonio’s West Side.

Once packed, they are shipped to vendors and contractors all over Mexico, Central and South America as well as Europe and Japan.



“This green economy is a new business and we need to teach our kids what it is all about.”

—PAUL DURAN

THE BURN ROOM All lights must go through a rigorous approval process before they hit the streets. This is the burn station, where the lights are tested for functionality and brilliance.



   

The lights are being deployed to replace 25,000 existing streetlights in San Antonio.

For every light fixture it sells the city, the firm donates $10 to UTSA’s College of Engineering. The firm hopes to eventually replace all of the city’s 100,000 streetlights.

Alice Duran.“We employ a lot of people and we see kids coming in, so they need the education.”

“This green economy is a new business and we need to teach our kids what it is all about,” Paul Duran added, noting that none of the 14 engineers currently on staff are from San Antonio. It is a situation he’d like to change.

The first batch of San Antonio’s lights was installed on Alamo Street near HemisFair Park. The difference was almost immediate, he said. He points out that a new 400-watt equivalent fixture uses about 171 watts of electricity and has an average lifespan of 60,000 hours, compared to the nearly 500 watts consumed by the older technology light it replaces, whose lifespan averages between 10,000 and 20,000 hours.

Additionally, the light illuminates with a cool-to-the-touch daylight color balance that doesn’t attract bugs.

At the firm’s sleek and modern 40,000-square-foot facility, an international crew of 52 workers assembles and tests the components that go into the futuristic-looking 23-pound, flat-head lights. Above the workers hang 19 flags of nations from Argentina to Japan that represent the firm's international clientele.

It’s a growing business, and its future appears as bright as its product. GreenStar recently contracted with Toshiba to make LED lights to be sold in North America, Canada and the Caribbean under the Toshiba brand.

“The Toshiba relationship has put us in a different arena,” Paul Duran said. Because of that contract, he predicts that the firm will be growing “probably three to four times faster than we could have otherwise.”

“A year ago we were producing less than 100 lights per month. This month we will produce more than 4,000,” Gabriel Senior, chief financial officer, said in April.“We are

THE BRAINS

The energy-efficient LED lamp casts a cold-to-thetouch “near daylight” luminosity and also functions as a smart device, processing specific digital commands from the utility company.

A new generation of green technology enthusiasts, Paul Duran seated with his son, Simon, in front of the lamp-burn testing station.

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THE MAGIC

Attractive and sleek, the flat-head fixture comes across as much a work of art as a piece of eco-friendly, innovative technology.

not even at 1 percent of where we want to go. The LED lighting industry is still tiny,” with huge growth potential, he said.

The company’s outdoor light fixture illuminates streets and parking lots and uses up to 70 percent less energy than the light it is replacing. Another product designed for warehouses and gas stations rings up nearly 75 percent energy savings, Senior said. In addition to using much less energy, the components are designed to maximize the lifespan of an LED by dissipating heat that can wear it out. It also needs less maintenance, meaning a longer life and lower operating costs.

In its contract with the city, GreenStar delivered some 5,000 lights and began installation along South Alamo Street, a historic and much-traveled downtown tourist artery. An informal survey of pedestrians there found that while many did not realize the lights had been replaced, they did notice a difference, Duran said.

“It’s more comfortable,” he said of the new illumination.“People don’t understand, but lighting has a real effect on you.”

CPS Energy CEO and President Doyle Beneby noted that GreenStar brings the community improved energy

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efficiency in addition to its investment in education.

“Like UTSA, CPS Energy realizes the importance of education, from our youngest students up to the collegiate level,” he said.“Investing in human capital and preparing people for the workforce is critical to a utility that relies heavily on engineers and other degreed professionals.

We saw the advantage of leveraging our municipal buying power to bring to San Antonio partners like GreenStar that will satisfy our clean energy needs.”

And the young company’s relationship with UTSA continues to grow. Recently, the company pledged a $250,000 GreenStar Energy Engineering Professorship in the College of Engineering, according to Dean C. Mauli Agrawal. He termed the gift a pioneer: it is the college’s first energy-related endowed professorship.

“Energy is going to be a very big part of our future,” Agrawal said of the college’s research focus.

Duran, who has been in business locally for 30 years, sees it as acting as a good corporate citizen.

“It’s not about the dollar. Of course you have to make a profit and take care of your shareholders, but you also have to give to the community,” he noted.“Corporations need to do that today, especially in the U.S., if we are go-

DIMINUTIVE YET STRONG

Each diode in the lamp is both powerful and small, about 1/15th the size of a dime.

Paul and Alice Duran founded GreenStar LED in 2009. Last fall, the company won a contract to replace 25,000 of San Antonio’s streetlights—one of the country’s largest municipal LED projects.

ing to stay ahead of the curve.”

The Durans own four commercial refrigeration businesses and it was a discussion about the less-thanreliable conventional lighting in a client’s refrigerated trucks that got them thinking about LED technology.

After introducing LED lighting to his biggest customer’s vehicle fleet, Duran realized the potential applications of efficient lighting technology.

That was five years ago. In addition to San Antonio, GreenStar’s clients now include the Texas cities of Wichita Falls, Robstown, Corpus Christi, Laredo and McAllen; the city of Colorado Springs, Colo.; Schreiner University in Kerrville; San Antonio’s Camp Bullis and Fort Sam Houston; as well as customers throughout Latin America, Europe and the Far East.

Projections call for GreenStar to continue to rapidly grow, but Duran said the company will stay true to its quality products and customer service.

“We are going to try very hard,” Paul Duran said.“That is done by doing what you say you are going to do and very simply taking care of our customer.”

To paraphrase a popular rock song, the firm’s future is so bright, it’s got to wear shades.

“It’s not about the dollar.

Of course you have to make a profit and take care of your shareholders, but you also have to give to the community.”

—PAUL DURAN G I V I N G 2 012

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TAKING CARE OF

Business Alumnus brings dollars and sense to chair university’s capital campaign

BY LETY LAUREL

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UTSA .EDU/GIVING

¶

A. Q.&

In April, UTSA made history when it embarked on the first capital campaign in the university’s

43 years. The goal: To raise $120 million by 2015 to enrich the student experience, to provide more scholarships and faculty research and to support new institutes and centers. ¶ “It was hard to say no,” said Jim Bodenstedt ’96, when he was asked to be the campaign’s chairman. “I was an alumnus, I had demonstrated major giving and I could speak from my personal belief and my heart that this was a good thing to do.” ¶ By the time the university went public with the campaign, it had raised $94.3 million, more than 78 percent of its goal. To date, that number has reached $102.9 million. ¶ But that is just the beginning, Bodenstedt said.

When he was 16, Bodenstedt carried a briefcase to school instead of a backpack. Between classes, he’d rush to a payphone to call his stockbroker about the newest stock to buy or sell with $2,000 he had inherited from his great-grandparents.“I was the biggest geek in the world,” he laughs, recalling his teen years.

He may have been slightly ahead of his time, but it served him well.

He already knew he wanted to someday own or run a large restaurant. So he got a job at McDonald’s, and by 18 was managing a Houston store.

“At the time, I was the second-youngest person to go to Hamburger University,” he said. When his father pushed him to go to college, his argument came down to simple math: The average student graduating from college made $17,500 a year, he explained. Bodenstedt already made more than $30,000.

His father relented.

Over the next decade he worked at McDonald’s and Taco Bell. He helped develop some of the 15 Alfonso’s/ ChaCho’s restaurants in San Antonio at the time. Then he decided he wanted a law degree.

He walked away from a $60,000 salary and for 23 months approached his undergraduate education at UTSA like he did business, working 80 hours a week. He also tested out of classes through the College Level Examination Program.

“It allowed me to get through school very quickly,” he said. “I think I still have the record for graduating the quickest at the university.”

He never made it to law school, but instead followed his passion for the restaurant business. Today he’s president and CEO of MUY Brands, LLC, which he founded in 2003 with 18 existing Taco Bell and KFC restaurants in West Texas and Corpus Christi. The firm now operates 240 restaurants from Amarillo to Brownsville and from El Paso to Houston, including KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W franchises.

“I’m doing what I wanted to do as a kiddo,” he said.

“I’m doing what I dreamt of doing when I was 16.”

That business success allowed him the opportunity to give back.

In 2010, he donated $1 million to UTSA to fund football scholarships, the first private donation of that size to the athletics department.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without UTSA,” he said. “So I feel a sense of responsibility to give back.

Mostly I think we need to give opportunities for others to succeed.”

Jim Bodenstedt, president and CEO of Muy Brands, LLC, routinely meets with employees.

YOU’VE BECOME INCREASINGLY INVOLVED WITH UTSA. WHY? The cities that have a great education base are the ones that businesses want to move their offices to because there’s an excellent, educated workforce. We’ve had a very good labor force here, and it’s been more blue collar and manufacturing in the past. I think it’s important to the city that the university has graduates for the future workforce.

WHEN DID YOU START GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY? In my 20s. I think people should have a greater sense of the world around them and be less individualistic and more community-centric. If you’ve got yourself in a good position, physically and emotionally, then you are prepared to be able to help others. And I’ve been fortunate that I’ve done well and I’ve had a sense of wanting to help.

WHY SHOULD WE PARTICIPATE IN THE CAPITAL CAMPAIGN? The fact that over 50,000 of [UTSA’s] more than 90,000 graduates are still

living in San Antonio tells me that as we continue to graduate more people every year, they are going to stay here and companies are going to notice that and start moving here because of the educated workforce we have. That hasn’t been the case in the past.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE CITY? A high number of graduates and higherdegreed graduates, Ph.D.’s and such, will attract the businesses that bring in the people that buy the houses that pay the taxes that keep the city’s engine running.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE UNIVERSITY WILL LOOK LIKE AFTER RAISING $120 MILLION? I think it will be a good start to continue to provide access to students in San Antonio and South Texas. It will help with Tier One status and being recognized as a research university unparalleled in our area in specific disciplines nationally and internationally.

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Scenes Capital from the

CampaignKICKOFF

A campaign kick-off event wouldn’t be complete without a marching band performance. Pictured above are President Ricardo Romo (right) and Ron Ellis, director of athletic bands (left).

Rod Gray, Thomas Duran, Alice Duran, Paul Duran and Sterlene Vincent enjoy refreshments.

Jean Lee, Steve Lee and Edith McAllister chat in the moments before the kickoff event.

From left to right: Helen Groves and her son, John Alexander, both of the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, have been instrumental in supporting the UTSA College of Sciences. They visit with Dean George Perry and his wife, Paloma.

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UTSA .EDU/GIVING

On April 12, UTSA launched its first-ever capital campaign with a fireworks display. By 2015, university officials hope to raise $120 million.

Go ’Runners! Tom Frost, banker and UTSA Development Board member, and State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte pose with a decked-out Rowdy.

“

The campaign is providing a foundation of support that will continue the university’s dynamic progress and ensure that excellence and innovation thrive here.

”

—UTSA President Ricardo Romo

Banker Don Frost (left) and Darryl Byrd, CEO of SA2020, (right) are both members of the UTSA Development Board.

College of Engineering Dean Mauli Agrawal chats with Cathy and Frank Burzik. Cathy Burzik is the former CEO of KCI.

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Giving Scene The UTSA

A year of firsts kept the UTSA community celebrating. From the first season of football to fireworks and campaign kickoffs, this year the UTSA Giving Scene was everywhere.

Jeff Galt, chairman of the board at City Year San Antonio, and Jana Galt, CEO of The Galt Group, talk with honor student Seth Megdalski and others at the annual Great Conversation! fundraiser in March. The event raised more than $148,000.

State Rep. Joaquín Castro and his brother, San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, attended the inaugural Roadrunner football game Sept. 3.

The UTSA Marching Band and cheerleaders celebrate the athletics program at the UT System Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee meeting.

Ernest Bromley, founder and CEO of Bromley Communications, views a demonstration at UTSA’s Advanced Visualization Laboratory during the Jan. 27 UT System Chancellor's Council Executive Committee’s meeting.

Lois Folger, CEO of Warren Equipment Co., and Beverly Randall, of the Jack & Beverly Randall Foundation Inc., tour the Advanced Visualization Laboratory Jan. 27.

UT System Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., met with Michelle Brock (left) and other leaders and key supporters at the UT System Chancellor’s Council Executive Committee meeting.

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(From back to front) State Rep. Leticia Van de Putte and San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro join UTSA President Ricardo Romo for a ride on the field at UTSA’s inaugural football game.

V .I ENDGU. U/ TGSI A E DGU U TGSI A V I. N

By the

umbers NA Top-Tier Campaign: $120 Million Goal by FY 2015

$16.4

MILLION

$102.9

$45.2

MILLION

MILLION RAISED

$45.2 MILLION

PROVIDING ACCESS TO EXCELLENCE

$25.2

MILLION

Offering students opportunities for educational attainment through scholarships, fellowships and programs designed to foster success

• Scholarships for undergraduates • Fellowships for graduate students • Funding for student access • Funding for retention programs

$13

MILLION

$2.9

$16.4 MILLION

MILLION

CREATING NEW KNOWLEDGE Attracting and retaining world-class, dedicated faculty who will teach and prepare our students for tomorrow, lead us in our quest to be a nationally recognized university by conducting cutting-edge research and serve our community through outreach and entrepreneurship

• Chairs and other endowed positions • Faculty research funding • Start-up funds for new faculty laboratories

$25.2 MILLION

$13 MILLION

Creating a vibrant, world-class campus life so our students have fulfilling collegiate experiences and our community is engaged in our cultural, academic and athletics programs

Establishing and advancing centers of knowledge and direct services that will help address the issues that are most critical to San Antonio, Texas and the nation

ENRICHING EXPERIENCES

• Student activities • International study programs • Cultural programs in the fine arts • Athletics, including the addition of UTSA Football

SERVING SOCIETY

• Research centers of excellence • P-20 outreach programs • Services to benefit the greater community

$2.9 MILLION

PRESIDENTIAL PRIORITIES

Used to advance the university in all other areas

Capital Campaign Benchmarks The campaign focuses on raising $120 million and support in four areas: students; faculty and research; centers and institutes; and student life.

BENCHMARK #1 $102.9 MILLION

Current campaign total*

BENCHMARK #2 45,835 GIFTS

Number of gifts to the campaign to date

BENCHMARK #3 135 SCHOLARSHIPS

created since the campaign’s soft launch in 2009 *as of August 2012 GGI VI V I NI NGG22012 012

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Giving Thought: PERSEVERANCE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE

I

n reviewing the stories for this issue of Giving, there seems to be an unintentional, underlying theme: Perseverance. Almost every story features people

who didn’t let objections stop them from achieving their dreams or seeing their ideas come to fruition. A man starting a business. Businessmen who overcame meager beginnings and ignored advice to achieve career success.

They listened to their hearts and forged their own paths to achievement.

Their stories are not unlike many others I have heard from UTSA students and alumni who have persevered to achieve their education. For more than 43 years, UTSA has been a place where ideas and plans are nurtured and where every day someone is overcoming the odds stacked against them. Perseverance is part of our fabric at UTSA. I also note that the people we featured didn’t do it all alone. Someone believed in them. There were friends and classmates who whispered encouragement. There were teachers and mentors who shared their vision. There were investors—people who supported programs and scholarships—that gave them access to the right knowledge and the right people to set their aspirations free.

Throughout our history, our alumni, students and donors have made what at times seemed impossible, possible. Imagine if Jim Bodenstedt had decided not to go to college before pursuing his lifelong dream.

Or if Bill Greehey had heeded the advice to drop out of high school. How many of our students would have gone without their generous scholarship support? Their tenacity, and ultimately their generosity, has made big, big dreams possible at UTSA. All of us have the same power to make a difference when we give time or treasure to UTSA. Your support could be just the spark needed for the next exciting program or student pursuit. That’s why I love my job at this amazing institution—I get to encourage people to do meaningful things with their time and resources and I love nothing more than sharing the difference it makes for our students and faculty (and their ability to persevere) with all of you.

Until next time,

Vice President for University Advancement

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GIVING.UTSA.EDU

PROVIDING ACCESS TO

EXCELLENCE 30,000 Reasons

Jessica Felhofer Ph.D. student Chemistry

More than 30,000 students have entrusted the biggest investment of their lives in UTSA. They deserve access to exceptional opportunities to succeed and achieve their dreams.

They deserve access to excellence.

To help them take full advantage of everything we offer at UTSA, we provide scholarships and fellowships. If you need a reason to give, we’ve got more than 30,000 of them.

The We Are UTSA capital campaign will provide millions in scholarship opportunities dedicated to our students’ success. Read Jessica’s story at WeAreUTSA.com.

We achieve. We excel. We Are UTSA.

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UTSA

®

The University of Texas at San Antonio One UTSA Circle San Antonio, Texas 78249

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage

PA ID

San Antonio, Texas PERMIT NO. 2474

WE ARE EDUCATING STUDENTS WHO TRANSFORM TEXAS AND THE WORLD. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GIVING TO UTSA, GO TO UTSA.EDU/GIVE.