MARIA AND DRAKE G. BEHRAKIS ’86 SUDBURY, MASS.
W
hen he contemplates the significance of academic excellence, Drake Behrakis ’86 casts his mind back more than two millennia.
Behrakis feels he received an outstanding education at the Carroll School of Management. And for the CEO of Marwick Associates, a real estate investment and development company, that instruction has proven invaluable. But it was BC’s balance between business and the liberal arts that made him a truly well-educated person, he explains, and gave him a strong foundation for his career. “The core values and beliefs that infuse a liberal arts education go back to ancient Greece and Rome, the cultural background we share,” says Behrakis. “BC has a strong classical orientation and an important connection to ancient Greece through the study of the classics, theology, philosophy, political science, and the arts. I want to help expand those areas so that BC’s students and faculty benefit now and in the future.” Accordingly, Behrakis and his wife, Maria, have made several gifts to
the University, totaling nearly $3.5 million, which work together as “pieces of the puzzle,” as Behrakis puts it, to support academic excellence in the classical arena. The Behrakis Professorship in Hellenic Political Studies—currently held by Robert Bartlett, an expert in the history of political philosophy—endows this position in perpetuity. Enhancing that professorship, the Behrakis Program Endowment provides broad-based support for Hellenic studies, including seminars, forums, teaching fellowships, and other scholarly activities, as well as the Behrakis Assistant Professorship in Hellenic Studies. Students who wish to study abroad will find assistance from the Maria E. and Drake G. Behrakis ’86 Fellowship for Study in Greece Fund. Even the Maria E. and Drake G. Behrakis ’86 Fund for Athletics, supporting student-athletes, fits into the puzzle, as the Greeks saw athletic competition as integral to the development of the intellect. Whether considered individually or as part of an integrated whole, these gifts will go far to ensure BC remains a leader in the liberal arts for generations to come.
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KAREN IZZI BRISTING ’84 LA CAÑADA, CALIF.
In
giving back to BC, Karen Izzi Bristing ’84 has addressed issues of deep personal concern—making gifts totaling more than $2 million that advance initiatives in academic excellence at three schools within the University. In doing so, she is making a difference not only at the Heights, but also in the countless lives that BC’s graduates will touch. Touch, in this case, can be taken quite literally. The Bristing Palliative Care Fund provides endowed support for the Connell School of Nursing’s Palliative Care Program, which trains nurses to attend to seriously ill patients with the goal of improving their quality of life. “This is the art of nursing, as well as the science,” according to Connell School Dean Susan Gennaro. Watching two close family members struggle with devastating chronic illnesses, Bristing became acutely aware of the role that nurses play, and she often wished that nursing care emphasizing patients’ comfort was more readily available. “The nurses who do that work are like angels,” she says. With this gift, Bristing is helping ensure that many more nurses will be trained in this critical specialty. Additionally, Bristing’s own experience at
BC led her to establish the Bristing Urban Scholar Fund, making forgivable loans available to Lynch School of Education students who go on to teach in urban schools. As a student, Bristing herself worked with inner-city Boston youth. “Now I live in Los Angeles, where the dropout rate is more than 20 percent,” she says. “It’s a terrible problem. I want to encourage young people to go into that difficult work and inspire whoever they can to learn, not drop out.” Bristing’s drive to inspire learning also led her to establish the Karen Izzi Bristing Faculty Research Fund at the College of Arts and Sciences, currently supporting two junior faculty members in the economics department. Bristing, a former economics major, feels this gift has elevated her bond with BC and expresses her family’s entrepreneurial nature. She is the owner of Equinox Equestrian Center, while her husband, Steve, co-owns and operates Race Truck Trends, which builds prototypes of new car and truck models. At BC, Bristing is proud to apply that same spirit—when she sees areas of need, she finds ways to meet them.
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means through which students l others.” They leave Boston Colle edge and skills, but also with a s ity to put their accomplishments well, it makes the world a better And while every school strives community lives and breathes it. lence is deeply imbued with the U ues, and it is essential to every a goal is to nurture students’ great how they might best be put into education not for self alone, but But how does BC define acade between a professor and a classr questioning, thinking. It’s the res night testing a theory or explorin prosaic necessities that make the sible—the classroom technology research stipend. Donors who support academic World each illuminate a unique f benefactors featured here have fo their own passions with the Univ