The Class of 1952 established a scholarship fund in March of 2000 as part of the Scholarship Challenge Campaign. The fund is invested as part of the overall Cornell endowment in the Cornell University Long Term Investment Pool, and as such, the choice of fund managers, expenses and payout policies are determined by the Board of Trustees Investment Committee. Like most other investments, our fund took a substantial (30%) hit this past year, although it has shown some slight improvement since June of 2009. As of September 30, 2009, its book value was $121,355, and its payout was $6334. (These numbers are unaudited--we will not have audited numbers until the end of October.)
Last year's scholarship was awarded to Alex Trudeau in the amount of $7452, so you can see the impact these market setbacks have had on this scholarship student (down over $1100.), as well as all others who have been similarly impacted. Although the University has attempted to compensate for the losses in scholarship monies, the loss in invested funds has had severe effects. For Alex, and for many others, a scholarship is a meaningful part of one's ability to continue at Cornell. We '52ers were lucky to attend Cornell when costs were so much less than they are today. The benefits and memories of Cornell can be made available to more students via your contributions to the Scholarship Fund. Ironically, the market losses have also caused the share value of the fund to drop, thus making now a good time to re-invest in this worthwhile endeavor.
If you have any questions about the scholarship fund, Mary Nash, of the Office of Donor Relations, Alumni Affairs and Development should be able to answer them for you. She may be reached at mm54@cornell.edu, or at 1-607-254-7197.
And here is a note from our current Class of 1952 scholar, Alex Trudeau.
To the Class of 1952,
I am eternally grateful for the aid you have given me to attend this dream-like university.
I come from a small town outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania called Newtown. It’s very quiet, and the only thing that really stands out is my high school, George School. It’s one of two private Quaker boarding schools in the country. My mother is of Russian descent and currently works as a teacher in a nursery in Princeton, New Jersey. I grew up without a dad--I lost contact with him at the age of one and a half.
I chose to come to Cornell because I believe it has the strongest engineering curriculum amongst the ivy leagues. Currently I’m pursuing a major in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Biomedical Engineering. I hope to go into the Masters of Engineering program at Cornell. Additionally, I am extremely interested in joining the co-op program.
Right now for extracurricular activities, I’m just working out a lot and playing a bunch of music. It’s great having a gym nearby; I’ve never had one before. I spend about two and a half hours there per week now. I play guitar, piano, and I sing and program. I brought a bunch of my music equipment to school and I continue to write songs and record by myself. I volunteered at a nursing home back in Newtown in back in spring, 2008. I typically helped set up rooms for the Quaker and Catholic services, and helped to clean up afterward. I plan to continue volunteering there over summer breaks although I live in Morrisville, PA now and I have very limited access to a car. At Cornell I am a member of IEEE. I plan to join the bowling club next semester.
My ideal future is just to have a house, a car, a wife and kids. And to be able to afford all of it. I would very much enjoy an opportunity to incorporate my skills in electrical engineering with music--so working with a company like Korg designing signal processors or something would be awesome.
Over the summer I work various odd jobs. The most recent job over the summer was Sears. Although I do professional recording on the side. I managed to get enough music equipment to be able to rent out my studio to very small time musicians. I don’t charge much, but it’s a lot of fun. During the semester I work at Hughes Hall in the service center.
Again, I very much appreciate the assistance you have provided me. One day I’ll be like you, and I’ll donate to help more people like me to attend Cornell University. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Alex Matthew Trudeau
amt233@cornell.edu
