John Levato wishes all students were like Jennine O’Reilly-Conway. And he is willing to invest in a scholarship in her name to inspire others to try.
O’Reilly-Conway, a member of the Class of 1988, died in June from complications due to diabetes. A summa cum laude graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a concentration in marketing, she not only had Levato as a teacher but as her faculty advisor during her career at Albany.
That began when Jennine O’Reilly transferred from Pace University as a sophomore. During her junior year, diabetes struck her seriously, requiring her to leave school. When she returned, she was blind, 23 years old, and totally determined to complete her academic career.
“She was a tremendously courageous young woman,” said Levato, “but she never asked for a thing. We didn’t even have books in Braille for her. She æread’ through a reader for the blind. And yet she came back a full-time student, got around campus with a seeing-eye dog and a cane, and was as excellent an undergraduate scholar as I have known.”
Upon graduation and marriage to Edward Conway, O’Reilly-Conway became an active homemaker and mother, and also a volunteer and advocate for the blind, the visually impaired, and for people with diabetes. Then in 1994 she joined the Northeastern Association of the Blind’s “Vista Climb Team,” and was a member of the first group of blind climbers to scale Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak.
“Being a diabetic myself, I know what hell she went through, day to day,” said Levato. “But she was a profile in courage. And I felt it was important in these days to honor the kind of student who is really a student.”
Levato funded by himself the first $500 Jennine O’Reilly-Conway ’88 Award, which was presented at the Fourth Annual Initiatives for Women Awards on Nov. 12 to Elizabeth Feldman, an MSW student who wishes to work with the at-risk and adjudicated adolescent population.
“I wanted to see this scholarship become a reality, so I just wrote a check,” said Levato, “and I’ve set something up so that when I die the work will go on to fund the scholarship. And I wanted it to go to a woman student. That’s why I went through the Initiatives for Women, which I believe in strongly as one of the most valuable institutions we have on campus.
“I think what I’m trying to say with the award is that the world has lost a wonderful person. And 20 years from now, whether I’m here or not, I’d like people to hear of this award and say, æWho was Jennine O’Reilly,’ and then to find out.”
Gloria DeSole, Senior Advisor to the President for Affirmative action and chair of the steering committee for Initiatives for Women, said “This award is a rare opportunity to make the connection between the deep feelings of a University colleague for a University student — and her heroism and tragedy — and an institutional need.
“The scholarship will be used to bring support to our students and faculty in these difficult budgetary times. So we seized upon the opportunity offered by John Levato’s absolutely magnanimous gesture in memory of Jennine O’Reilly-Conway to enable a University woman to carry on her tradition.”
Emeritus Arthur N. Collins æ48, former professor of English at the University and currently a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, will be a participant in a one-hour program of readings from stage and screen, titled “Reel Life and Drama” at the Lenox Library in Lenox, Massachusetts, on Friday, December 13, at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Joining Collins will be Dory Previn, award-winning songwriter, and Academy Award-winning actress Maureen Stapleton.
Donations, which will benefit the Library, are $5 per person. Reservations are necessary and can be made by calling (413) 637-0197.
Vinny Reda