ScholarshipsEverything correlates: a gift of access to ensure success
As Executive Vice President of Princeton University, Mark Burstein ’84 (right) is keenly aware of the finer points of financial aid – for instance, the fact that more than 80 percent of funding for scholarships at Princeton comes from its endowment, while the comparable figure for Vassar is 31 percent, with general operating funds having to make up the difference. That’s one of the major reasons Burstein and his spouse, David Calle, recently decided to make a gift to the College that will provide the equivalent of one year’s average financial aid award for one student.
They had other good reasons, as well. “Both David and I care deeply about higher education as a tool for social mobility,” Burstein says. “Both of us feel that our undergraduate education has been an instrumental component of our success.”
Calle, Vice President of Finance for Customer Development US/Americas at Unilever, agrees: “As a first-generation American, I was brought up with the belief that education is the greatest gift, and I am proud that Unilever’s matching program amplifies our support of Vassar.”
“Higher education is one of the only tools that has been proved to correlate to success in future life,” adds Burstein. “We wanted to support access to Vassar for students and families that don’t have the resources to go there.”
Burstein, a history major at Vassar, credits his time at the College with giving him “excellent critical thinking skills, the ability to present my ideas in a cogent and thoughtful way – and a deep sense of the power that history has on current events,” citing the late Professor Emeritus Donald Olsen as one of his greatest influences. Away from the classroom, he was one of the founding members of the peer counseling listening center, and was elected to the Master Planning Committee – both experiences which had a profound effect on his future career (he want on to get an MBA in finance, and has spent the past 15 years being deeply involved in physical campus planning, first at Columbia, then at Princeton).
Since he and Calle do all their family giving jointly, their experiences at Vassar since Burstein’s undergraduate days were an equally important impetus for their gift. “Vassar’s been welcoming to David and to the two of us as a couple when we’ve come back for Reunions, and that means a lot to us,” Burstein says. “We’ve been lucky enough to get to know Fran, and now David and I are passionate fans of Cappy. We think she’s doing a fantastic job, and the fact that increased access through financial aid is one of Cappy’s highest priorities was a major motivation for our gift.” Accordingly, Burstein and Calle have made their gift in honor of President Hill.