Laporte Challenge Fund Inspires Fourteen New Endowed Fellowships
With over 70 percent of our students reliant upon financial aid to afford a Penn Nursing education, fellowships are particularly critical, especially for students in our accelerated second degree and Masters programs who are often no longer eligible for certain types of aid. It was this need that inspired Andie Laporte, alumna and Chair of Penn Nursing’s Board of Advisors, to offer matching funds to anyone who would like to endow fellowships at the School. Thanks to Andie’s brilliant idea and generosity, donors established fourteen new fellowships for students in need, all designated for accelerated second degree and Masters students.
March 10, 2021Fourteen new fellowships means fourteen extraordinary students each year who otherwise might not be able to afford an education or continuation of their education at the #1-ranked nursing school in the world. The magnitude of this expansion of available aid for students is staggering: last year Penn Nursing had only 25 fellowships and scholarships available for graduate-level students. The fellowships that Penn Nursing donors have been able to establish thanks to Andie’s incredible matching gift are endowed—they will continue to fund education for second degree and Masters students with financial need in perpetuity. That’s countless future leaders who might serve at the bedside, make important discoveries in the research lab, help shape policy in the board room, or write legislation in government office. The impact of these fellowships on students and on their future patients is impossible to quantify.
But the benefit to students now and long into the future is not the only way Andie’s wonderful gift has impacted Penn Nursing. Lisa Cordeiro Kricun, Penn Nursing’s Senior Major Gifts Officer, points out that the matching gift was instrumental to the School’s ability to meet Innovating for Life and Living Campaign Goals. “Our donors are always incredibly generous,” Lisa says. “Andie’s gift meant that their generosity could go much further—instead of a term fellowship that might help students with financial need for a five year or a ten year period, they could establish an endowed fellowship that lasts forever. That type of benefit certainly inspired donors to think bigger, and they were inspired by Andie’s unique commitment to our School.”
To learn more about each new fellowship, please click the links below.
Armbrister-Edwards Endowed Fellowship
Carolyn Bennett Endowed Fellowship
Christopher James Cunningham Endowed Fellowship
Cleda and Herbert Martin Griffin Endowed Fellowship at Penn Nursing
David & Eunice King Family Endowed Fellowship
Eugene and Philomena Campbell Endowed Fellowship
Gilbert F. Casellas and Ada Garcia Casellas Endowed Fellowship
JoAnn Nallinger Grant Endowed Fellowship
Kerekes Family Endowed Fellowship
Lipinski Family Endowed Fellowship
Marie Savard, M.D. Nursing Endowed Fellowship II
Natalia Martin Endowed Fellowship
Nursing Midwifery Class of 2017 Fellowship
Susan Weiss Behrend and Daniel B. Behrend Endowed Fellowship