The Annual Business Campaign kicked off its scholarship fund Tuesday with a breakfast honoring nearly 50 area business leaders.
Since 1993, businesses have contributed to the fund, which provides scholarships to students from Albany, Columbia, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schoharie and Schenectady counties.
“Union was founded as ‘Schenectady’s school’,” President Stephen C. Ainlay told attendees at College Park Hall, “and the partnerships between the College and the community are alive and well today.''
Ainlay thanked the businesses for their support, reminding them of the opportunities it affords students.
“What differentiates Union from other colleges is that we give students access to faculty and research that most students won’t experience until they attend graduate school,' Ainlay said. "That’s become an expensive proposition. Your support enables us to provide these opportunities to invest in students who will shape and improve our society in the future.”
One of those scholars is Hilary Handin '08, a History and French major from Guilderland. Handin spent her spring trimester as an intern with the Feminist Majority Foundation, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C. She also spent a term during her sophomore year in France, where she took cooking lessons from a Parisian chef, explored a writer’s chateau in Brittany and sharpened her language skills, which helped with her senior thesis about the role of women in the French Resistance during World War II.
“Union has provided me countless opportunities to sharpen my critical thinking skills and to deepen my understanding of the world at large,” said Handin, a tutor in the College's Writing Center. “I work intensively with a freshman preceptorial course each term which enables me to make personal connections with students from all kinds of backgrounds. I love this work because I am able to watch them progress over the course of the trimester.”
Handin was introduced by the chairman of this year's campaign, Richard Fuerst '96, of Higgins, Roberts, Beyerl & Coan. Fuerst thanked Timothy Thornton '67 of McNamee, Lochner, Titus and Williams, who chaired the campaign for several years.
For more information on the Annual Business Campaign visit http://www.union.edu/Alumni/Partners/ABC/ or contact Elizabeth Epstein at (518) 388-8380.