Campaign gifts benefit professionals of tomorrow

John Henry, a communication disorders graduate student, is among many who have received support from campaign gifts to UW-Eau Claire College of Professional Studies programs.

Through gifts to Fulfilling the Promise of Excellence, generous alumni and friends are making a difference for tomorrow’s teachers, health care facility administrators, athletic trainers and other future professionals pursuing their education in the College of Professional Studies at UW-Eau Claire.

“These generous donors come from diverse backgrounds — alumni, emeriti faculty, community members and other university partners in the region,” said Mark Clark, dean of the College of Professional Studies. “Their support for our students, faculty and programs is truly appreciated will go a long way in making excellent programs even better.”

Recent gifts to benefit the College of Professional Studies include:

$1 million estate gift: Scholarships for first-generation education students

High-achieving education students will benefit from an anonymous $1 million estate gift.

A $1 million estate gift from an anonymous alumni couple will create an endowed scholarship fund to support high-achieving, first-generation UW-Eau Claire students who aspire to be teachers.

The couple, both of whom are UW-Eau Claire education graduates and one of whom was a first-generation college graduate, have named the UW-Eau Claire Foundation as the sole beneficiary of their estate.

“We are grateful for their generosity,” said Carole Halberg, UW-Eau Claire Foundation president. “We also are honored that through this university these donors will leave their legacy by encouraging high-achieving students to become tomorrow’s teachers.”

Both donors have been teachers, Halberg said. They have seen firsthand the important influence that teachers have in students’ lives, and they are troubled that relatively low teaching salaries cause many of today’s top university students to pursue other professions, she said.

“This is an investment that will yield many significant returns by assisting highly qualified students to become outstanding teachers in the future,” said Katherine Rhoades, associate dean of the School of Education. “I can think of no better way of honoring and perpetuating these donors’ lifelong contributions to the field of education.”

$50,000: Equipment for renovated athletic training facility
A recognition of the importance of athletic training in the care and treatment of athletes led to a gift of $50,000 from Chippewa Valley Orthopedics and Sports Medicine and the OakLeaf Surgical Hospital to help equip UW-Eau Claire’s newly renovated athletic training facility.

“With this gift, we recognize and support the athletic training education program at UW-Eau Claire and its mission to educate the licensed athletic trainers of tomorrow,” said Dr. John Drawbert, an orthopedic surgeon at Chippewa Valley Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, which has offices in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls.

University funds covered the renovations to the athletic training facility in the McPhee Physical Education Center, said Jeff Oliphant, assistant professor of kinesiology and athletics and director of the university’s athletic training education program. Now, the gift is allowing the university to adequately equip the space, he said.

“We’re going to be able to purchase some equipment we really couldn’t otherwise afford, and that’s going to have a very important impact on the education of our athletic training students, as well as on the quality of care our student athletes receive,” Oliphant said.

The gift is an example of how private dollars are helping many programs at UW-Eau Claire during its ongoing comprehensive fund-raising campaign, said Carole Halberg, UW-Eau Claire Foundation president.

“In this case, university funding was supplemented by private dollars to create a top-notch facility for the students in our athletic training education program and our student athletes,” she said.

The renovated facility has been named the Chippewa Valley Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Athletic Training and Treatment Center in recognition of Drawbert, UW-Eau Claire’s volunteer team physician for all sports since 1986 and director of the high school sports medicine outreach program, a partnership between UW-Eau Claire and area high schools to provide athletic training services for the schools’ sports programs.

$30,000: Support for health care administration program
Beverly Healthcare is contributing to the future of the health care administration profession through its pledge of $30,000 to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation in support of the university’s Center for Health and Aging Services Excellence (CHASE), said Beverly vice president David Mills.

“In some small way, we hope to help the university provide an environment where students are well prepared to accept the challenges that face our industry in the years to come,” said Mills, a 1987 UW-Eau Claire health care administration graduate who also serves on the CHASE board.

Doug Olson, assistant professor of allied health and CHASE director, said Beverly Healthcare’s program grant will help fund CHASE efforts to (1) develop and implement a regional health and aging services administration certificate program for adult learners; (2) support an annual undergraduate applied research project; and (3) create a scholarship for incoming freshmen and sophomores majoring in health care administration.

The Beverly Healthcare grant is one example of the partnerships CHASE is forming with members and organizations of the professional community to expand and enhance UW-Eau Claire’s health care administration program, Olson said.

“We believe that working on important issues in the field within our own silos doesn’t work well anymore,” he said. “We have a much better chance to solve the impending leadership gap problem in our field by working in partnership.”

$24,000: Scholarships for future physical education teachers

Professor emerita Ida Hinz, pictured here teaching a 1960s-era first aid class, has made a planned gift that will fund a scholarship for future physical education teachers.

Ida Hinz, UW-Eau Claire professor emerita of physical education, has devoted decades to promoting the importance of physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Now she has ensured, through a $24,000 planned gift, that her support for what she values most will continue through the Dr. Ida Hinz Physical Education Scholarship Fund. The fund, once endowed through Hinz’s gift, will provide an annual $1,000 scholarship for a UW-Eau Claire education student preparing for a teaching career in physical education.

Hinz was on the UW-Eau Claire physical education faculty for 34 years and chair of the department from 1969 until her retirement in 1983. In determining the criteria for the endowed scholarship, it was important that the support go to future physical education teachers who will focus on teaching students “physical fitness and things they can do for the rest of their lives,” Hinz said. “I want to support a teaching and learning of lifetime activities.”

The Dr. Ida Hinz Physical Education Scholarship Fund was established by UW-Eau Claire students at her retirement to recognize her many contributions and years of service to the physical education department.

“Her leadership as department chairperson and her dedication to teaching, advising and service all helped to shape the programs our students enjoy today,” said Marilyn Skrivseth, kinesiology and athletics department chair. “This scholarship fund will now provide some much needed financial assistance to the best and brightest students in the program.”

$10,600: Amber Star Krenz Memorial Scholarship

Amber Star Krenz

During the fall semester of 2001, Amber Star Krenz was 22 and a UW-Eau Claire junior pursuing her dreams, which included traveling to Australia the following semester and, long term, working in Alaska in environmental and public health.

Krenz’s dreams were cut short Nov. 27, 2001, when she died from complications related to meningococcal disease.

Now, less than a year after Krenz’s mother, Sheila Wright, started a UW-Eau Claire Foundation scholarship in her daughter’s name, the combined generosity of nearly 100 donors from at least 12 states has memorialized Krenz and endowed a scholarship fund for other students who share her dreams.

Each year beginning in 2004, the $500 Amber Star Krenz Memorial Scholarship will be awarded to a student with a declared major in environmental and public health who also plans to study abroad for a semester.

“It’s a credit to Amber that people have gone out of their way in giving money, in what are perhaps some hard times, to provide for another student,” said William Krenz, Amber Krenz’s father.

One gift was designated to pay for the first scholarship next May, allowing the Foundation to award the scholarship a year earlier than otherwise would have been possible without taking the fund below the $10,000 endowed level.

“She definitely touched the lives of a lot of people,” Wright said of her daughter. “I think that’s why we had so much success with this scholarship fund. She was a special person, and people recognized that in her.”