In front of a filled Aiken Center Solarium on October 1, 2015, Rubenstein School Dean Nancy Mathews and the UVM Foundation announced a $250,000 gift to the School from the Crowley Family Foundation. The Crowley family of Massachusetts owns Polar Beverages and Wachusett Mountain Ski Area. Their gift is dedicated to supporting valuable internships for Rubenstein School students.
The Crowley Family Foundation includes family members Carolyn Crowley Stimpson, Jeff Crowley, and David Crowley. In attendance at the announcement were Carolyn, her husband John Stimpson, and their son Chris Stimpson (RSENR '16). Their son Sam Stimpson (RSENR '19) could not attend due to classes. The family gave insight into the value they place on real-world, hands-on experience. They strongly encourage potential employees to intern in the beverage industry before joining Polar Beverages and for all students to get hands-on experience before entering their first job.
Zack Gund (UVM ’93), generous donor to the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and member of the UVM Foundation’s Board of Directors, addressed the eager crowd gathered in the Solarium. Zack spoke about the importance of student internships, which play a significant role in the academic approach of the Rubenstein School. He pointed out the benefits to students, as well as the organizations that receive help fulfilling their missions. Furthermore, these internships are paid for by cost-share, which places financial responsibility on the School and partnering organizations.
During her announcement, Dean Mathews articulated the importance of connecting the classroom to the community and that the “soft skills” learned during internships, such as communication and conflict resolution, are the “hard” skills that students need to learn to successfully launch their careers. Internships provide an ideal way to learn these skills and often lead to employment with the same organization. These experiential learning opportunities correlate with higher academic performance in students.
The Crowley family members have also been long-time guest speakers in Senior Lecturer David Kaufman’s Ski Area Management class in the Rubenstein School’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT) program. Both Chris and Sam Crowley are majoring in the popular PRT program.
Dave states, “When speaking to the class, the family provides a terrific perspective on the role of the smaller ski areas near major metro areas in exciting people about the sport and building participants who then venture to the bigger mountains in Vermont. Wachusett and the Crowley family are always open to offering internships and to potentially hiring our PRT graduates.”
The event concluded with anecdotal evidence presented by Rubenstein School undergraduate Olivia Lukacic who spent her summer interning at Hurricane Island in Maine. During her time working with the Hurricane Island Foundation, Olivia designed and implemented a curriculum which connects kids with marine and coastal environments. In light of the Crowley Family’s generous donation, she added, “I'm excited that undergraduate students beyond me will have the same influential experience.”
The announcement was an important part of the crescendo of gift announcements that occurred all over campus in the two days leading up to the public launch of Move Mountains: The Campaign for The University of Vermont. Rubenstein School undergraduates Jacqueline Cardoza and Flore Costume featured prominently in the October 1st Campaign kick-off — each speaking at an announcement event on campus.