Jeff and Mary Helen Holzschuh stood just before a crowd at Niagara University on Wednesday as a productive few who gave their alma mater $10 million – one particular of the premier items in the university’s 166-calendar year heritage, earning their name on its enterprise school.
But when it came time to discuss, Jeff Holzschuh choked up pondering of the youthful few they were 40 years back, whose scholarships to show up at Niagara built his career in finance and hers in nursing possible.
“We’ve been truly privileged to be in a position to give again,” Holzschuh claimed by way of tears as the university dedicated the newly christened Holzschuh Higher education of Small business Administration. “Our goal has 3 objectives, but amount just one is supplying a full bunch of pupils the capacity to appear listed here like we did, and they likely need some assistance.”
Apart from offering the enterprise school a title, their present will offer 5 business and 5 nursing scholarships every single 12 months, said Niagara College President Rev. James Maher.
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“The strategy is to recruit students who are academically attuned and have will need,” Maher said. “So this will be encouraging doing work lousy and middle course pupils have the possibility to analyze here.”
Niagara University unveils a indication renaming its Faculty of Small business Administration as the Holzschuh School of Small business Administration following a gift by Jeff and Mary Helen Holzschuh who have pledged a reward of $10 million, the premier alumni donation in the history of the college, Wednesday, May well 4, 2022. University President Father James Maher, speaks, on left and Jeff and Mary Helen Holzschuh on ideal.
Sharon Cantillon
A part of the gift also will assistance aid the men’s and women’s basketball groups, due to the fact Jeff Holzschuh attained his small business degree on a basketball scholarship.
And the couple’s third objective, he claimed, “is we hope to inspire a bunch of folks to guidance us and hold this likely for the future 50 or 100 decades.”
Mark Frascatore, dean of the business enterprise university, mentioned the gift comes soon after a number of of yrs of strife. 4 decades back, New York condition adopted the Excelsior Scholarship that would make it probable for pupils to attend SUNY colleges tuition-free, which posed massive recruiting challenges for non-public faculties these types of as Niagara, he claimed.
The university was producing strides in recruiting when the pandemic hit in 2019, forcing colleges to shift lessons on line. In July 2021, as matters were being easing up, weighty rain brought on severe flooding that broken Bisgrove Corridor, the physical dwelling of the company school, necessitating key repairs.
“Today, applications and deposits for slide 2022 are up, portending a good course of incoming freshmen,” Frascatore mentioned, “And with this generous reward from the Holzschuhs, we all over again have a feeling of optimism, of assure and new beginnings.”
Maher described Jeff and Mary Helen Holzschuh as “students from actual, humble people who labored tricky to modify their lives.”
Jeffrey Holzschuh, a Rochester native, explained the university’s modest dimension and sense of group allowed him to fulfill its trustees, including the late Dick Chapdelaine, who aided him get his to start with career on Wall Avenue at Morgan Stanley. Practically 39 a long time afterwards, he is still with the business as chair of its institutional securities division. “That labored out pretty effectively,” he deadpanned.
The previous Mary Helen Mahoney attained her nursing diploma at Niagara and went on to do the job as a nurse at Robust Memorial Medical center in Rochester and Memorial Sloan Kettering Most cancers Middle right before having time to elevate a family in their property of Greenwich, Conn.
The Holzschuhs have been solid supporters of their alma mater – both have been awarded Niagara’s Medial of Honor in 2017 for their success and service – and give money to numerous causes. But they have hardly ever created a reward of this measurement until now, Jeff Holzschuh explained. It is the largest alumni reward in Niagara background and, with their preceding donations, make the couple the university’s major benefactors.
Holzschuh claimed he and his spouse want to fork out it forward simply simply because they are grateful. The signal that the college unveiled Wednesday incorporates a photo of them and a quotation from St. Vincent DePaul: “We ought to shell out as much time in thanking God for his advantages as we do in asking Him for them,” it claimed.
Holzschuh also joked about their title (pronounced “Hole-shoe”) now gracing the company university.
“I apologize for the actuality that the staff members, college and all people else is heading to have to find out how to spell it” he reported.
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