![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.
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11.30.06 UVM AWARDED ENDOWMENT GIFT, SCHOLARSHIP GRANT FROM OSHER FOUNDATION
The Bernard Osher Foundation of San Francisco has awarded the university a $1 million endowment gift for the statewide Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which is based in Continuing Education, and a $50,000 Reentry Scholarship Grant for scholarship support for reentry students.
The $1 million endowment award is the culmination of four years of successive grant funding from the Osher Foundation that established the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in eight communities throughout Vermont.
"It is so rewarding to receive the endowment from the Osher Foundation in recognition of the hard work that has gone into the creation of UVM’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute," says Director Deborah Worthley, who was responsible for securing the grant and endowment funding and creating Vermont’s network of Osher Institutes, one of more than 90 the Osher Foundation has funded to date.
The Institute offers non-credit intellectually engaging programming for older adults in local communities at an affordable cost, providing a means for Vermont’s older residents to learn simply for the joy of learning and personal fulfillment. Local volunteers provide leadership for each institute, developing programs — over 80 each semester — that appeal to their members. Membership has grown from 90 to over 600 statewide since it was established in 2002.
"Volunteers are at the heart of the Osher Institutes here in Vermont," says Worthley. "The success of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Vermont is based in the grassroots nature of the local steering committees that recognize the value the Osher Institutes bring to their communities and older residents."
The foundation’s $50,000 Reentry Scholarship Grant will provide financial assistance to students ages 25-50 seeking to complete a bachelor's degree at UVM.
The funding allows UVM to offer scholarship funding specifically to adult students for the first time. "This is great news for UVM and adult students who face financial challenges as they seek to complete their bachelor’s degree," says Beth Taylor-Nolan, director of student services and enrollment management for UVM Continuing Education. "We see many adult students who are unable to complete their academic goals because they run out of financial resources."
The scholarship funding was secured by Worthley and Taylor-Nolan and will be administered through UVM’s Financial Aid and Scholarship office. The first scholarship awards will be available for the spring 2007 semester. Qualified adult students enrolled in UVM’s Guaranteed Admission Program as well as degree programs will be eligible to apply.
The Bernard Osher Foundation was founded by Bernard Osher in 1977. Through the foundation, his philanthropy has benefited a wide range of educational, cultural, and other nonprofit organizations primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area and his native Maine.
Bernard Osher is a successful businessman and community leader, a patron of the arts and education, whose philanthropy has affected countless organizations over the past quarter century. His wife, the Honorable Barbro Osher, Consul General of Sweden in San Francisco, serves as chair of the foundation.
Published October 30, 2006, in the view