Inspire (Spring 2014)

PRATT INSTITUTE Institutional Advancement | Major Gifts 200 Willoughby Avenue | Brooklyn, NY 11205

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S TAY C O NNEC T E D

5.1.14

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2014 prAtt fAshion shoW + CoCktAil benefit

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6:00 PM Award Presentation + Fashion Show Center 548 • 548 West 22nd Street • New York City

Todd Michael Galitz

7:30 PM Cocktail Benefit The High Line Hotel • 180 Tenth Avenue • New York City

VICE PRESIDENT FOR INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT

Emily Mitra Moqtaderi EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CAMPAIGN AND MAJOR GIFTS

Tickets: www.pratt.edu/fashionshow fashionshow@pratt.edu | 718.399.4548

Mara McGinnis

Proceeds benefit Pratt scholarship funds and the Institute’s Department of Fashion Design.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING

Charlotte Savidge DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATIONS Inspire is a twice-yearly newsletter for donors and friends of Pratt. Please direct questions and comments to inspire@pratt.edu, or call Institutional Advancement at 718.636.3537.

pl Anned giving

Photo: Elizabeth Dranitzke

librArY lover’s beQuest to provide resourCes for future generAtions while she has many memories of her undergraduate years at pratt, patricia tuohy (B.f.a. ’79) cherishes her time in the institute’s library most. “Before google, the library gave people access to the world’s information. it was a place to explore,” Patricia Tuohy (B.F.A. ’79) she says. at pratt, she recalls discovering “italian designers, renaissance painting, and social etiquette, all in the library.”

THe renAISSAnCe SOCIeTY Janet m. Anderson ’60 donald m. Axleroad ’56 roger m. bazeley ’73 Joan l. benson ’50 laura J. bohn ’77 & richard C. fiore sr. melinda brisben robertina m. Campbell ’66 Allen Carlsen ’59 neil e. Campbell ’69 & barbara Campbell victor Carnuccio ’79 James m. Casker ’67 virginia Chakejian ’62

tuohy’s career is a tribute to her combined passions for art, design, and libraries. after working for the united States holocaust Museum, she went on to establish and lead the exhibition program at the national institute of health’s national library of Medicine—one of the largest repositories of medical knowledge in the world. over the past 17 years, she has developed and overseen an exhibitions program that includes on-site installations, traveling exhibitions, educational resources, and websites. She credits much of her success to the creative problem-solving skills she gained at pratt.

to help ensure that future generations of pratt students will have the opportunity to benefit from the library’s rich resources, tuohy has made a planned gift through her retirement account in support of the pratt library. “i wanted to make a gift that touches the entire college and all of its students,” she says. “Considering the impact the library had on me, it was an obvious choice.”

To learn more about planned giving options that can benefit you and your heirs while supporting Pratt, contact Drew Babitts, Major and Planned Gifts Officer, at 718.399.4296 or by email at dbabitts@pratt.edu.

The Renaissance Society recognizes donors who have pledged their commitment to Pratt Institute with a planned gift.

We gratefully recognize the following members of Pratt’s Renaissance Society:

gerardo Contreras & ruth Contreras

deming p. holleran & romer holleran

dr. John p. martin ’68

mike pratt

parthasarathy iyengar ’68 & sashikala iyengar

michael C. pyatok ’66

ronald h. deluca ’49 & lois h. deluca

david b. mattingly Carl J. mays ’48

Jean raper

maryellen dohrs ’50

susan kamm ’64

Angie mills ’50

layton l. register

richard W. eiger ’55 & ruth eiger

mary e. kelly ’61

philip r. monaghan ’79

martin e. rich AiA ’63 & donna rich

mildred m. fatovic ’72

Judith kingsley

Jean s. floon ’42 Arnold A. friedmann ’53 & susi friedmann Constance b. gee ’79 emil m. gentilella ’49 morton gerard ’59 edward m. giordano Jr. ’85

Jisun kim ’98 lawrence r. koltnow ’66 & emily numeroff koltnow ’64 rachael krinsky elizabeth J. kuhn ’42 lois lazarus mary ellen ’65 & raymond letterman

Annemarie p. morris in memory of george W. morris ’43 John l. morrow Jr. ’48 & helen C. morrow

louise C. rust ’56 & herbert h. rust dds

patricia dedula stokes ’68 & ronald romano louis taylor ’40 fern tiger ’67 irving r. toben ’47 & patricia e. toben patricia e. tuohy ’79 ernestine t. l. vallen ’54

Adeline sadowski ’57

Claudette m. Wellington ’88

isabel morton

david saylor ’69

bruce m. newman ’53 & Judith newman

thomas f. schutte & tess l. schutte

robert h. Welz ’51 & mary louise Welz

kevin J. o’mara ’72 & Joan h. o’mara

lucy m. sikes ’58

merrick f. pratt

timothy d. stoddard ’56

If you have included Pratt in your estate plan and are not listed here, please email plannedgiving@pratt.edu and we will add your name to the next published list.

millicent C. Wettstein Anonymous (7)

inspire the giving newslet ter of prat t institu te

Spring 2014

Alumnus Young Woo Creates Scholarship honoring father Gift Will Put Undergraduates on Path to Success

Photo: Peter Tannenbaum

Young Woo (B. Arch. ’79) has established a reputation as one of the most innovative and enterprising real-estate developers of our time. As founder and principal of Youngwoo & Associates, his projects include the Sky Garage condos, the Chelsea Arts Tower, and the current transformation of Pier 57 into an emotional retail, culinary, and cultural hub.

A native of Korea, Woo credits his Pratt education with instilling in him the creativity that has helped make him the success he is today. “In my business, all of our projects focus on bold thinking,” he says.

“At Pratt, our instructors constantly challenged us to create something different. I use what I learned then all the time.”

Young Woo (B. Arch. ’79)

To ensure that other talented young men and women have the opportunity to follow in his footsteps, Woo established the Jae Kwan Woo Scholarship to provide much-needed financial assistance to undergraduates across Pratt Institute.

The award, named in honor of Woo’s late father, will also encourage students to persevere—a lesson that Jae Kwan Woo consistently demonstrated, particularly throughout his 20-year quest to immigrate to the United States, which took him from

Seoul, Korea, to Paraguay and Argentina, before he arrived in North America.

In addition to honoring his father’s memory with a scholarship, Woo, who served as a Pratt Trustee from 2006 to 2012, has made contributions to dedicate spaces in the Pratt School of Architecture’s Higgins Hall for mentors who have helped and influenced him. In 2008, he created the Na Ok Woo Conference Room in honor of his late sister. Two years earlier, he established the Choong Seun Oh Classroom in memory of the good friend whose generosity in the early 1990s turned Woo’s business around. “He called one day and said he’d dreamt that I needed help, and he gave me two blank checks. I didn’t ask for or expect it.” Inscribed with the words “Dream Big,” the plaque on the Choong Seun Oh Classroom even inspired a recent Pratt architecture graduate and his family to establish the Dream Big Scholarship to help future architecture students realize their own professional dreams.

“I am delighted to have set an example for others,” says Woo. “I hope my most recent gift will prove equally inspiring—both to the students who receive the award and to my fellow alumni who owe so much to their Pratt education.”

Thomas F. and Tess L. Schutte Endowed Scholarship Established at Legends 2013

Gala Proceeds to Support Fund Honoring President’s 20 Years at Pratt

While announcing the scholarship via a videotaped message, Pratt alumnus and Trustee Emeritus Bruce Newman (B.F.A. ’53) said, “When I think of Tom Schutte, I think of three words: energy, passion, and dedication. No one has more energy than Tom; no one has more passion for Pratt than Tom; and no one is more dedicated to Pratt than Tom.” The tribute to Schutte included a slide show highlighting some of his most notable achievements over the past two decades, including expanding campus housing to complete the Institute’s transition from a commuter school to a residential college that attracts students from around the world; strengthening the faculty and academic programs,

which has led to a six-fold increase in the number of freshman applications; beautifying and enhancing the Brooklyn campus’s grounds and facilities to earn Pratt a place on Architectural Digest’s list of the top 10 colleges nationwide with the best architecture; growing the endowment from $13 million to more than $120 million; and leading the revitalization of the neighborhood surrounding Pratt, including transforming Myrtle Avenue into a thriving commercial district that serves local residents and business people as well as the Institute community. Under Schutte’s leadership, Pratt has also increased the amount of scholarship and financial aid awarded annually to Pratt students from $6.9 million to nearly $38 million.

Building on these achievements, the Thomas F. and Tess L. Schutte Endowed Scholarship Fund will provide vital financial assistance to students across the Institute’s schools. In addition to providing essential support to the most promising, talented, and dedicated students, the awards will be a tremendous source of encouragement and inspiration to the students who receive them.

Photo: Matthew Septimus

Pratt alumni, faculty, and friends celebrated the 20th anniversary of Dr. Thomas F. Schutte’s presidency of the Institute at the 2013 Legends gala following the surprise announcement of a new student scholarship fund in his and his wife’s names.

The Thomas F. and Tess L. Schutte Endowed Scholarship Fund was launched with the proceeds from the event, which totaled nearly $800,000.

To make a gift in support of the Thomas F. and Tess L. Schutte Endowed Scholarship Fund, visit www.pratt. edu/schuttescholarship or contact Emily Moqtaderi, Executive Director of Campaign and Major Gifts, at 718.230.6852.

dean’s c orner

Andrew Barnes, Dean, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences develop their skills in order to effect change in our society. The focus on social activism also distinguishes Pratt’s writing program from others in our metropolitan area.

In addition to these current initiatives, we are developing a number of graduate programs in the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies that will emphasize concrete community engagement—a primary goal for the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

How can individuals help support these efforts?

Student scholarships are our most urgent need. Our ultimate goal for the M.F.A. in Writing program is to provide full funding for every student in the program. Every dollar provides valuable scholarship support for current students and helps Pratt build one of the nation’s top writing programs. We have a responsibility to help students afford a first-rate graduate education without incurring enormous debt.

“ We aim to increase the amount of scholarship support we provide for all of our graduate students.”

Photo: Jonathan Weitz

Pratt’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences is also doing pioneering research in art and design through science and mathematics. Tell us about some of the projects underway in this area.

The School of Liberal Arts and Sciences is establishing itself as a cultural thought leader that actively engages the local community. What new initiatives are building on this reputation?

Several new graduate programs in our Department of Humanities and Media Studies aim specifically to engage the local community. Our M.A. in Media Studies, launched in Fall 2013, allows students to examine the ways in which all sorts of media affect communities, from how we engage via social media to the different sorts of media we interface with every day. Our M.F.A. in Writing, beginning this fall, is designed specifically for writers who want to

One of our long-term goals is to develop a research center for the study of mathematics, science, and the arts. Such a center would build on the Sirovich Family Professorship of Mathematics for the Arts, created last year, and the Environmental Sustainability Science Research Laboratory, funded through a generous donation from the Miller Family Trust, which our science faculty and students are using in partnership with graduate planning students in the Pratt School of Architecture to address a variety of environmental issues throughout the greater New York City area. These initiatives represent the type of interdisciplinary work at which our faculty excels and which we aim to expand through the research center.

To that end, we aim to increase the amount of scholarship support that we provide for all of our graduate students.

We are also seeking funds to establish a research center for the study of mathematics, science, and the arts that will be a one-of-akind facility for interdisciplinary projects that benefit our students and make a real-world difference. This represents a tremendous opportunity for donors to support groundbreaking collaborations between mathematicians, scientists, artists, designers, and architects that create new knowledge and have the potential to transform society.

To make a secure online gift to The Fund for Pratt—SLAS, visit www.pratt.edu/give. Under “Special Instructions,” indicate that you prefer to direct your gift and select “The Fund for Pratt—Liberal Arts and Sciences.”

the f und for pr at t

Longtime Gatekeepers Benefit Future Generations

Alumni Perpetuate Legacy of Success by Giving Back When he came to Pratt in the 1950s, Peter Kern (Chemical Engineering ’62) could not have imagined the impact that the Institute would have on his life. Not only did Kern meet his future wife during his freshman year, he also went on to have a distinguished career that included 23 years in metallurgical engineering for the New Jersey Zinc Company, where he rose to the position of senior vice president. He went on to become president and CEO of Palmerton Hospital, a position he held from 1988 until his retirement in 2000.

In recognition of the role that Pratt played in his life and career, Kern contributes annually to his alma mater—and has been doing so for the past 25 years. He is one of an elite group of longtime donors within the Institute’s Gatekeeper Society, which recognizes individuals who have made gifts to Pratt for five consecutive years. Indeed, alumni throughout the Institute’s schools are helping to ensure that current and future generations have similar opportunities to benefit from a Pratt education through yearly gifts to The Fund

Photo: Alex Weber

“Pratt made all the difference in my career,” says Kern. “Had it not been for the generous financial support that the Institute provided me, I doubt I could have achieved the level of success that life has given me.”

Pratt Institute’s Hall Street Gate.

for Pratt, which provides immediate resources for scholarships and financial aid, on which 80 percent of Pratt students rely, as well as study abroad and other priorities across the Institute.

the life of Pratt Institute every day for more than two decades—and are continuing to do so through their ongoing gifts to The Fund for Pratt.

Through his annual contributions, Kern and other Gatekeepers have made a meaningful impact on

To make a secure online gift to The Fund for Pratt, visit www.pratt.edu/give.

tr ansfor ming pr at t

MacDonald Scholarship to Transform Pratt Students’ Lives

Photo: Peter Tannenbaum

Award Makes Dream of College a Reality for Current Students When Robert and Carolyn MacDonald established the MacDonald Scholarship in 1988, they wanted to make a difference in students’ lives—much the way Robert’s great-grandfather, Charles Pratt, had done a century earlier when he founded Pratt Institute. The couple’s most recent gift allows them to realize that goal by providing a significant tuition award annually.

her mother could no longer afford the tuition, Zirimis turned to Pratt for help. She credits the MacDonalds for enabling her to finish her final year in the Institute’s Communications Design program and for giving her mother the peace of mind that she had not failed her daughter as a parent. Zirimis will be the first on her mother’s side of the family to receive a college diploma.

The gift, which the MacDonalds made in memory of Robert’s mother, Helen Babbott MacDonald, also perpetuates her legacy of helping others, which she furthered through the Cranshaw Corporation, a charitable foundation she established. In her honor, recipients of the MacDonald Scholarship will be known as Cranshaw Scholars. For the current Cranshaw Scholar, Emily Zirimis, the MacDonalds’ generosity has transformed her mother’s life as well as her own.

Robert MacDonald says, “I am just grateful to have been able to help her as I did.”

“My mother swore to herself that her child would someday attend college,” says Zirimis, whose single mother was unable to attend college due to financial constraints. When

“I wish I could say that the idea was mine originally,” says MacDonald. “I borrowed it from my English cousins who ensured that many boys were able to finish at Eton when money was not available.”

In addition to the MacDonald Scholarship, the family has also supported the Institute’s Student Emergency Fund, which provides one-time assistance to Pratt students who encounter an unforeseen financial emergency or catastrophic event that would otherwise prevent them from continuing their education at Pratt.

Robert MacDonald

how to give...

Creating a named endowed professorship or scholarship is an ideal way to pay tribute to a cherished family member or mentor while making a lasting impact on Pratt Institute and its students. To learn more about these and other giving opportunities, please contact Institutional Advancement at 718.230.6852.

Pratt Ushers In New Era for Film/Video State-of-the-Art Facility to Open Fall 2014

Located at 550 Myrtle Avenue, the new facility is being designed by architectural firm WASA/ Studio A. The Film/Video building will complement a new B.F.A. Film/Video curriculum that prioritizes innovation and experimentation within a solid grounding in fundamental moving-image production techniques. It will also support a new low-residency M.F.A. Film/Video program currently being developed.

Highlights of the new building, which is scheduled to open in Fall 2014, will include: • a dynamic lobby adjacent to the screening room and soundstages with views onto a new landscaped pedestrian walkway on Myrtle Avenue.

• a 100-seat screening room where Pratt students, faculty, and staff, as well as members of the community, can view the latest Film/Video program creations.

• two soundstages outfitted with lighting grids and green screens, as well as projection and sound monitoring capabilities, which will serve as instructional facilities for cinematography

Image: Vicky Chan/Avoid Obvious

With motion-picture cameras now standard on smartphones, video has become the pervasive medium of dynamic communication and creative expression everywhere—from Fortune 500 companies to entrepreneurial start-ups. “Video plays a prominent role in so many industries and facets of life today,” says Pratt Institute Provost Peter Barna. To help meet the need for movingimage-savvy professionals, Pratt is creating a state-of-the-art facility for its Film/Video program.

Rendering of the new Film/Video building lobby

and film production courses and as galleries for video installation-based work.

• a soundproofed and acoustically designed ProTools 5.1 surround sound-mixing facility that will serve as the primary classroom for sound design courses.

• two video-editing labs outfitted with high-end displays and sound-monitoring equipment where Film/Video juniors and seniors can put the finishing touches on their work.

• an all-glass conference room that can accommodate 16 people and will be used for screenwriting courses as well as meetings.

The new building is available for naming in addition to the various facilitites within the building.

“With the creation of this new facility, Pratt is perfectly positioned to educate technically adept and conceptually adaptable video artists and designers who will lead the development of new applications for video,” says Barna.

To learn more about naming a space in the Film/Video facility, contact Emily Moqtaderi, Executive Director, Campaign and Major Gifts, at 718.230.6852.