![Andrew Siebengartner
'03 excelled in the John Dewey Honors program and hopes to share his love of classical languages with the next generation of students and scholars.
[click for more]](http://www.uvm.edu/~campaign/media/d1m7B5gsw72U2ke.jpg) |
Crea G'78 and Philip '63 Lintilhac
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01.10.05 LINTILHAC CHALLENGE GETS A STRONG RESPONSE
It didn't take long for the Lintilhac Foundation Challenge Gift Program to capture donors' attention. Just a few weeks following the announcement of the program in the October Vermont Quarterly, the University had already received commitments for seven new endowed scholarships that will benefit UVM students in perpetuity.
Established with a generous $1 million gift from Crea G'78 and Philip Lintilhac '63, the challenge is intended to grow the amount of financial assistance available to UVM students annually in the form of scholarships, the top priority of The Campaign for the University of Vermont. The minimum contribution to establish a named, endowed scholarship at UVM is $100,000. The challenge gift makes it possible for a donor to meet that threshold with a minimum contribution of $67,000, with the balance drawn from the $1 million challenge pool.
The strong response to the challenge is a perfect fit with the University's long-range strategy of growing enrollment while continuing to attract first-rate students to UVM. "Nothing inspires good teaching as much as inquisitive and engaged students," says Philip Lintilhac, a long-time UVM faculty member. "Teaching to good students is easy. We can never have enough of them."
First to respond to the Lintilhac Challenge was Al Purcell, Jr. '53, who established the Gordie Burke Memorial Scholarship fund to honor the memory of a boy who died tragically in 2003 at the age of seven from complications of brain cancer. Purcell says the challenge gift made it possible to establish the scholarship immediately, rather than through his estate. "I've always believed in this idea of giving with warm hands, while you're still alive, if you can," he says. Purcell specified that the scholarship be awarded to students with financial need who plan on being teachers. "We need more people who are teachers, because they're the ones who shape future generations," he says. "That's where we're going to rise or fall as a society."