While citizens who have a post-secondary education fare better in society, society fares better with more college graduates, including those from IUP. A study by the College Board concluded that children of college graduates are better prepared for school, that college graduates volunteer more in their communities, and college graduates are more likely to participate in elections.
IUP takes that responsibility seriously, and we know we can't do it without you!
Alumni, friends, parents, employees, and students who stay connected to IUP already know this, and designate their charitable gifts to the university.
Benefactors who invest in IUP students understand that philanthropy opens the doors of opportunity for students—doors that otherwise may never be opened. Members of our giving societies partner with the university to build the foundation for student success. Their investments enable IUP to grow and to flourish.
IUP needs your help in many ways, but we can narrow down the conversation to three basic areas: scholarships, capital improvements, and program enhancements.
They fell in love at IUP, and Jim and Stephanie Brewer Jozefowicz are quite aware of how lucky they are.
Faculty members in the IUP Department of Economics, Jim and Stephanie met during their first semester on campus, the fall of 1999. Jim came from New York, and Stephanie came from Texas. Soon after meeting, they were inseparable. They got married, settled in Indiana, and now call it home.
That experience compelled the Jozefowiczes to give back to IUP. They established an endowed scholarship in their names to aid economics students for years to come and an immediate-use fund in Stephanie’s
name.
“We are deeply blessed by IUP and by the community,” Stephanie said, “and now it is a wonderful aspect of our lives that we are able to be involved this way.” Jesalyn Fada and Kaitlin Albright, who both graduated in spring 2020, are two recent recipients of awards from the immediate-use fund and of other scholarship funding.
“I’m really proud of myself,” Kaitlin said. “I proved to myself that I have the ability to achieve great things.”
“This has relieved a lot of stress and made things easier,” Jesalyn said. “It will help me strive to find the career I want.”
When Bill Madia ’69, M’71 and Audrey DeLaquil Madia ’70 were students at IUP, they understood firsthand what it meant to struggle just to keep up.
Bill was a first-generation college student and didn't’t get much financial support from his family, so he had to work multiple part-time jobs to pay for school. Fifty years later, the Madias are making sure some IUP students don’t have to struggle the way they did.
“What we want to accomplish,” Audrey said, “is being able to help that same kind of student—like we were—today.”
The Madias have given gifts to IUP that have done just that, allowing students a little breathing room. Isaac Dewar, who grew up in a single-parent household near Pittsburgh, is one of them.
During his first year at IUP, Isaac worked a 40-hour-a-week job to be able to go to school and work toward his dual degree in physics and applied mathematics. But thanks to a scholarship he earned, he now has the time to apply his education and build his résumé.
He serves as a tutor on campus and is planning to attend graduate school and seek a master’s degree in experimental nuclear physics.
“This [scholarship] has made it much easier,” Isaac said. “It covers the necessities, so I can take care of myself.”
“This has relieved a lot of stress and made things easier,” Jesalyn said. “It will help me strive to find the career I want.”
