Reprinted with permission of the Times Union, Albany, NY 9/16/94
By Paul Grondahl, Staff writer
Ten women will be able to move one step closer to their
career and educational goals as recipients of a new program at the University
at Albany
called Initiatives for Women.
The awards and cash prizes will be presented to the winners
at a fund raising reception hosted by UAlbany President H. Patrick Swygert and
his
wife, Sonja E. Swygert, at their Loudonville home on Saturday.
Initiatives for Women is part of the University's Campaign
For Albany, which so far has raised $29 million of its $55 million goal for
the university.
The 1999 fund-raising target for Initiatives for Women is $1 million, which
will be awarded to help women achieve their personal and professional
objectives.
In this first round of awards, a total of $4,000 will be
given to the 10 winners. "We hope to have more resources in the future
and plan to have at
least two rounds of awards each year," says Gloria DeSole, Senior advisor
to the president for affirmative action and employment planning at
UAlbany.
Money will be awarded as it is raised. "There is a
large need, and we want to put money into the hands of women as quickly as possible
so that
they can achieve their personal best," DeSole says.
"The recipients tell us it's not only a matter
of the money, but the signal from the university that we believe in them and
we're for them that makes
the awards enormously important," DeSole says.
As an indication of the spectrum of women eligible for the
competitive awards, Desole says applicants could range from a person with little
education living in a battered-women's shelter dreaming of going to college
to faculty members organizing a conference on women's issues.
Barbara Altrock, a secretary in the controller's office
at UAlbany, will use her $500 award to take a second course this semester toward
her
bachelor's degree in psychology.
Altrock, 47, of East Greenbush, began working at the university
in 1974, but stopped to raise her two children. One of them, her son, Jeff Altrock,
22, is a senior sociology major at UAlbany.
"Most of my friends at the university are satisfied
with their position, but I always felt like I wanted to achieve more,"
says Altrock. "When I came
back to work in 1982, I realized how important an education was and decided
that's what I wanted."
Altrock says her goal is to take two courses each semester. That would mean a May 1997 graduation.
"I think it's fantastic they're giving money to help women advance in whatever way they can," Altrock says.
Panamian-born Anastatia Polson, 22, of Albany, who works
as a waitress at Denny's Restaurant to help pay for her master's degree courses
in
social work at UAlbany, says her $300 award will pay for textbooks this semester.
"It's absolutely wonderful to have a program
that empowers women to overcome financial difficulties and to come back to school
and get their
degrees," Polson says.
Polson's mother, a retired librarian living in Colon, Panama,
is a single parent on a modest fixed income. To save money, Polson transferred
from
Adelphi University, to UAlbany were she earned her bachelor's degree in social
work last May.
"The cost of a private university drained my
mother completely and I wanted to give her a break and ease the financial strain,"
says Polson, who
became an American citizen in 1985 and has relatives on Long Island.
Polson says she has worked as a secretary, in telemarketing
and in a mall retail store to pay her way at UAlbany. She also received two
scholarships worth $1,100 last summer and is on an accelerated schedule, hoping
to graduate with her master's degree from the school of Social
Welfare in May 1995.
Catherine Forneris will receive a $500 award that will allow
the doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at UAlbany to hire subjects for
her study
on post-traumatic stress disorder in female rape survivors.
"I've been interested in issues such as rape
and sexual abuse for a long time and this will help me complete the study that
will be the groundwork
for my dissertation," says Forneris, 29, of Delmar, who works at UAlbany's
Center for Stress and Anxiety Disorders.
Forneris, who had a diving accident eight years ago, is a quadriplegic and the first wheelchair-bound student in the clinical psychology program.
Other recipients of Initiatives for Women awards are:
Joan Koppel, of Guilderland; Joeanna Hurston Brown, of Albany; Donna E. Aitoro,
of Albany;
Carrie Kuelh, of Albany; Teresa Noverr-Duncan, of Albany; Suesanne Oxenberg,
of Albany; and Maggie Ziomek, of Round Lake.
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