Endowments
and Restricted Funds
Endowments provide financial
security for the future. Students benefit with opportunities
for scholarships; faculty with resources for teaching, research,
and scholarly activities, and academic programs with the
resources to ensure student success. Endowments named for
donors provide permanent income because only a percentage
of the gift is spent annually, while remaining funds are
invested to ensure continued growth. Endowments can be allocated
for a particular college, discipline or program, or may be
unrestricted.
Restricted funds allow donors
to leave a legacy while maximizing the value of their generosity
on the areas of interest to them. Individual programs are
enhanced as the greatest needs surface.
For more information, please contact Joanne Nigrelli, Assistant Vice President for Principal Gifts, Institutional Advancement, 973-720-2332 or nigrellij@wpunj.edu.
Major Contribution
Scholarship Endowment for a Spanish Major
As dedicated educators who have taught countless students, the Saas have continued their legacy with an endowed scholarship to benefit students. Orlando, a professor of classical languages and Spanish language and culture at the University and Lorraine, a retired teacher of high school English, have close to 65 years of teaching behind them.
“Both my wife and I believe that if we educate people we will be in a much better world,” says Saa.
The Maria Saa and Marieta Cutillo Family Scholarship, is named in honor of their mothers, whom they loved and adored and is the first Foundation Scholarship designated for meritorious Spanish majors who require financial assistance. The scholarship began at the minimum level in 2003. However, Dr. Saa continues to add to this scholarship regularly, tripling their initial contribution over the past five years.
For Orlando, his most gratifying contribution to the University is the time he spends advising students and helping them achieve their personal and career goals. “I enjoy talking with my students, and I am also concerned about their lives, and helping them to become productive citizens.”
For the past twenty years, Orlando has coordinated the department’s annual Poetry Recitation Contest, a program that he founded. It brings together more than 700 students from 70 secondary schools from neighboring counties. Dr. Saa’s poems appear in more than thirty anthologies in the United States and abroad.
As a teacher, scholar, mentor, and benefactor, Orlando Saa has been an inspiration to generations of William Paterson students.
Major Contribution
Planned Gifts for Hobart Manor Revitalization Campaign and an Endowed Scholarship
 |
|
“Be a secretary like your Aunt Nicki,” echoed the words of Vivian’s parents. A first generation college student from a working class family in Carlstadt, NJ, Vivian still remembers those words.
However, Vivian Semeraro ’60 had other plans. An amazing teaching experience from her first grade substitute teacher, started Vivian on the career path she chose. Her love of teaching and the ability to build a trusting relationship with children was reinforced when she arrived at William Paterson.
To her joy, her first grade substitute teacher, James Houston, was now teaching her child psychology class at William Paterson. Houston’s theme of building trust with children and the experience of other faculty and staff members resonated with her throughout her 34 years as a middle school teacher in the Wood-Ridge public school system.
In her decision to make a gift of life insurance for an endowed scholarship in her name, Vivian states, " How could I not give back to the institution that gave me so much? I hope that my gift can make a difference for young people.”
Vivian’s love affair with the University doesn’t end there. As president of the hospitality club in the late 1950s, Vivian had the opportunity to serve as a hostess in Hobart Manor, the turn-of-the-century historic landmark on campus. There she served cookies and tea accompanied by some intimate conversations with dignitaries like Eleanor Roosevelt and Robert Frost. Vivian states, “I continue to be so impressed with the beauty and elegance of the Manor and fascinated with those who graced its rooms.” As a result, Vivian Semeraro’s actions followed her heart with another planned gift, a bequest for an endowment to enable the University to revitalize and maintain the Manor. Its function continues to serve dignitaries today through the Distinguished Lecturer Series, now in its 29th year.
Major Contribution
Scholarship Endowment
"The key to happiness in every area of your life is gratitude and giving. I am inspired by the many wonderful people who know these principles already. If you want friendship, be a good friend. If you want blessings in your life, then give," says Irene Dedio '92.
No one could live these words of wisdom more than Irene and Sam Dedio ’88, a member of the Foundation Board and senior portfolio manager for Artio Global.
Irene tells about the ultimate pay-it-forward lesson experienced by her mother. When she found herself short of cash at a check-out counter one day, a kind woman helped her pay for her groceries. The encounter did not leave her mother embarrassed but instead empowered her to give to someone else. This lesson forever struck a chord in the lives of Irene and Sam.
Lacking resources when they were first married, Sam and Irene began giving back by donating their time to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. They found that the more they gave, the more they received. As a result, they have kept on giving, and William Paterson University and its students are a beneficiary of their philosophy and philanthropy. They established the Sam and Irene Dedio Endowed Scholarship and remain actively involved in the life of the University. Sam and Irene reside in Kinnelon, New Jersey, with their two children, Sam and Ava.
|
