Rita Offutt, Editor
La Salle’s Honors Program launched a scholarship initiative in Aug. 202, and in Feb. 2021 the fundraising effort surpassed the $1 million milestone. The initiative seeks to raise $3 million by 2023, and has currently met 34% of its fundraising goal, with a current total of $1,009,584. According to the fundraiser’s website, providing scholarship opportunities to honors students will “allow us to recruit and retain high-achieving and engaged students who have long been the hallmark of this special learning community. Whatever your connection to the Honors Program – whether alumni, parent/family, faculty, or friend – we ask you to join with us in supporting this new initiative so that we can drive further growth of this program and sustain it for generations of students to come.”
The website not only describes the campaign but showcases donors, dividing them by the amount of their contribution and relationship to the university. The donation brackets, labeled Giving Societies range from donations up to $999 to gifts of more than $50,000. Within the Giving Societies is a special bracket for undergraduate alumni within 10 years of graduation who donate between $500-$999, called the Young Alumni Circle. Alumnus Jacob Garwood ‘20, who served as the Collegian’s Editor-In-Chief during the 2019-2020 academic year, is one of many alumni donors. Garwood, whose donation placed him in the bracket above the Young Alumni Circle, says, “The honors program at La Salle is an empowering and transformational program. I believe it is important to pay it forward so future generations of explorers can share in the enriching experience I had as an undergrad.”
According to an article written by Christopher Vito, La Salle’s Senior Director of Strategic Communications, “The university annually awards $4.5 million in total scholarship support to La Salle Honors Program students. Gifts to the Honors Program Scholarship Initiative will drive its growth through recruitment and retention of the best students, and sustain a program that has created pathways to a high-impact Lasallian education for more than 50 years.”
Vito’s article also highlights La Salle’s Alumni Association’s Day of Giving donation challenge. If the Honors Program Initiative reaches 75 donors during Day of Giving on Mar. 23, the Alumni Association will donate $10,000 towards the fundraiser. Questions and donation inquiries should be directed to either John Prendergast, the Associate Director of Development, or Daniel Joyce, the Vice President of University Advancement.
The La Salle Collegian 