Undergraduate Scholarships:
More Essential Than Ever
By Paul Grondahl

Susan Van Horn Shipherd, B.S.'64, established a $10,000 gift to the University in 1994 to encourage women to go into scientific careers. Private scholarships are a critical tool in the University's efforts to attract high-achieving students.

Martha Bealler Altman was a vocational high school teacher in a gritty inner-city neighborhood of Brooklyn, where she formed a local chapter of Future Business Leaders of America for her students. She led them on field trips to corporations in Manhattan to demonstrate to her disadvantaged students what they might achieve if they worked hard for their dreams. “Several of her students became the first one in their families to go to college, and she really helped those kids go further in life than they would have gone otherwise,” said her son, Nolan Altman, B.S.’77, who earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University. It was also at the University that he met his wife, Susan, B.S.’77, who was also a business major.

When his mother died in 1995, Altman decided a good way to honor her memory and career as an educator and to support his alma mater was to establish the Martha Bealler Altman Scholarship Fund. With a $30,000 initial gift, the fund provides a $1,500 scholarship for a University undergraduate student each year. “It’s great to give something back to the University that gave me so much,” said Altman, who runs a business consulting firm and lives in Oceanside, Long Island, with his wife and two daughters. He is also a member of the University’s Campaign Development Committee.

The scholarship is awarded on the basis of academic standing and financial need. This year’s recipient is Lindsay Booth, a junior business major from Washingtonville, Orange County. “It was exciting to be chosen and it really helped me out a lot, since I’m using financial aid, loans and a work-study job to pay for college,” said Booth, who has a 3.64 cumulative G.P.A .and plans to look for a job in business after graduation.

Altman’s family liked the idea of the scholarship fund so much that he gave an additional $30,000 gift in memory of his father, Murray Altman, who died in 2000. “My father was a TV repairman, and he was thrilled by what I’d done for my mother at the University,” Altman said. This time, Altman earmarked the money for the Judaic Studies Department, because his father’s side of the family lost some members during the Nazi atrocities of the Holocaust.
The fund he established in memory of Murray Altman is being used to help fund undergraduate research projects within the Judaic Studies Department.

The University at Albany Foundation, which currently administers 85 named scholarships, 88 named awards and eight fellowships, provided a total of $950,000 in private aid, including emergency loans, to deserving UAlbany students in the past year.

Dennis Tillman, director of the Office of Financial Aid, said that over half of UAlbany’s students demonstrate financial need, but there simply isn’t enough funding available to meet that need from government sources.

“We have no reason to believe that any student aid programs will be enhanced in the near term, and there’s a real possibility there will even be a reduction in certain types of government grant aid. This situation increases the need for private scholarship funds to help needy students who have performed well,” Tillman said.

Sheila Mahan, assistant vice president for enrollment management, said private scholarships are a critical tool in UAlbany’s efforts to attract high-achieving students. “We know we have strong programs, and we know we offer an educational program that can allow students to reduce their need for loans and work. But a private scholarship is both an acknowledgement of the student’s outstanding performance in high school and very often the final piece that allows that student to choose the University. Top students do have a number of excellent choices among top institutions, and a private scholarship is often the key to their decision.”

Susan Van Horn Shipherd, B.S.’64, had access in mind when she established a scholarship fund to encourage female undergraduate students to pursue careers in science. “In the past, women did not get the respect that men did in scientific areas,” said Shipherd, who majored in biology at the University and spent 15 years working as a research assistant in private and public sector labs. “Back when I graduated, the grunt work was done by women technicians like myself, and if you got an acknowledgement at the end of a scholarly paper for all your hard work, you were lucky.”

Shipherd believes scholarships like hers have helped women make major inroads in science. She gave a $10,000 gift in 1994 to establish the Susan Van Horn Shipherd ‘64 Women in Science Scholarship. The recipient receives a $500 scholarship each year. This year, the award went to Jennifer Argentieri, who is preparing for a career in science. “I’ve met the recipients in the past and they’ve all been outstanding,” said Shipherd, who lives in Poestenkill, Rensselaer County, and is a sales representative for Krackeler Scientific. She has two grown children, including a daughter, Jillian, B.A.’91. Shipherd
currently serves as secretary on the board of the Alumni Association.

For more information on how you can provide undergraduate scholarship support, please contact Dr. Sorrell Chesin, Associate Vice President for Advancement, 518-437-4770, schesin@uamail.albany.edu

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