2016 Saint Michael's College Donor Impact Report

2016 Donor Impact Report

$138,238 Corporate Gifts

$110,000

$99,613

Realized Bequests

Corporate Matching Gifts

$563,312

Donor Participation Rates

$185,328

Trustees

Foundations

$270,212 Friends of the College

2016 Total Giving $3,447,161

$131,587 Parents of Students

Year

Rate

2012

17%

$177,400

18%

2014

18%

2015

$1,615,141

17%

Undergraduate Alumni

20%

2016

Other*

Cash to Date FY16

Parents of Alumni

2013

$156,330

* I ncludes Graduate Alumni, Faculty and Staff, Current Students, Edmundites, and Gifts of Property

“I came to Saint Michael’s in 1960 and remain so proud of St. Mike’s continued progress, on all levels, in providing a transformational education experience to its students. Much more than pride is required to keep moving forward. St. Mike’s In 2016, alumnus, longtime friend, and donor, Bob Tobin '64, issued a $100K challenge to the community. He offered to give $100,000 to the College if we could secure 1000 donors. When this goal was achieved a week early, an anonymous trustee continued the challenge with $25,000 for the next 250 gifts the College received. It was an enormous success!

needs more support from its alumni to ensure that future generations will experience St. Mike’s.”

– Dr. Bob Tobin '64

The Tobin Challenge by the Numbers

$567,410

1,633

RAISED

TOTAL GIFTS

198

410

818

FIRST-TIME DONORS

LAPSED DONORS WHO RETURNED

RETAINED DONORS

A Story of Donor Impact For decades, Saint Michael’s College and many other liberal arts institutions of higher education have claimed that a well-rounded liberal arts education has long-term benefits that go well beyond just finding a good job after college. We have long marketed this message to prospective students and advocated for donors to support Saint Michael’s on this premise. We have relied on our beloved alumni, parents, and friends to simply reflect on their own experiences and desire to provide a similar experience to the next generation of students.

It turns out that you – our loyal supporters – are having a deeper impact than we imagined.

During the 2015–16 academic year, Saint Michael’s College partnered with Gallup, Inc. to conduct one of the most comprehensive studies of the college's alumni. This survey sought to understand more about the outcomes of a Saint Michael's College education — to learn how our alumni fared five, 10, or even 30-plus years after graduation. The results were deeply gratifying. The College exceeded comparison groups among its peers and even nationally in most categories.

The report further highlighted that positive outcomes for our alumni were the result of: • Feeling actively supported by faculty and staff when attending as students • Having increased opportunities to participate in experiential learning — particularly internships, study-abroad experiences, and community service

You, as loyal donors and volunteers, make these opportunities and experiences possible every time you make an investment in today’s GREAT JOBS students. Support of M.O.V.E. GREAT LIVES and Campus Ministry allows our students to develop deep community connections and learn the value of giving their time in support of social justice initiatives.

Investments in athletics and outdoor sports programs allow us to teach students the value of keeping physically active. Giving of your time and treasure to build a strong professional network will continue to ensure Saint Michael’s students and alumni can find and enjoy engaging professional experiences and well-being.

To learn more about the long-term impact of a Saint Michael’s education you make possible, visit smcvt.edu/gallup.

Richard Daniel Vice President of Institutional Advancement

“ The most important gift that you can provide is an opportunity for others to succeed. The donors and shared stories are reflections of what a Saint Michael's experience creates for students, faculty, staff, and alumni.”

• Living in the kind of social environment encouraged by a 100 percent residential experience

“Saint Michael's College alumni are far

more likely to be thriving in four of five elements of well-being compared with all comparison groups and college graduates nationally…”

— 2016 Gallup Alumni Survey Report

82 percent of our alumni who obtained their degree between 2000 and 2015 are

employed full-time. That’s more than 10 percentage points higher than the national average for baccalaureate colleges.

64 percent of alumni participated in M.O.V.E. or other volunteer efforts during their Saint Michael's education.

65 percent of alumni are thriving in “purpose” well-being.

The mission of Institutional Advancement is to develop lifelong relationships with alumni, families, and friends, and to engage them as committed volunteers and benefactors.

Enabling Student Learning Through Experience Donors to Saint Michael’s often want their gifts to honor and support students while also impacting our global community. Meghan VanStry '17 and her support from Brian Lacey '72 demonstrate how just such a partnership ended up affecting an entire country’s water supply.

“The availability of clean drinking water is arguably the biggest human rights issue in the world.”

VanStry, a senior from Medford, MA, is a double major in Business Administration and Environmental Studies at Saint Michael’s College. Homing in on Justice and Sustainability in her latter concentration, VanStry aims to combine passions for the environment, human rights, and social justice into her career following St. Mike’s.

Thanks to the Brian Lacey International Fellowship in Social Justice award, her crucial work has already begun.

VanStry joined a wildlife conservation and political ecology program in Tanzania during the fall 2015 semester and used the funding from the award toward equipment needed, including a soft-frame backpack, tent, sleeping bag, and vaccinations and medication not covered by insurance. Her independent study project concerned water, looking at the history of that nation’s water infrastructure and the relationship Tanzanians have with water. “The availability of clean drinking water is arguably the biggest human rights issue in the world,” she wrote in her application for the Lacey award. She

also wrote in a study abroad personal statement, “To me, global citizenship is being able to empathize with others around the world, despite distance and differences in culture because we are all part of the same humanity.”

The Brian Lacey International Fellowship in Social Justice is designed to encourage and honor students who have demonstrated superior academic achievement as well as a dedication to a deeper understanding of issues and social justice. This merit and need-based award is intended to recognize students who show initiative, imagination, and motivation to apply their academic skills to the betterment of humanity.

The fellowship is offered once each semester. It is funded through gifts from Brian Lacey '72 – president of Lacey Entertainment, a New York-based worldwide television marketing, production, and distribution company. Lacey is also founder and director of the Kilkea Foundation, a nonprofit organization that encourages and honors excellence in the humanities, arts, and sciences. He also has established the Henry G. Fairbanks Visiting Humanities Scholar-in-Residence at Saint Michael's College through the Kilkea Foundation.

“Gratitude” Feeds a Professor’s Mission “Helping students become more conscious about patterns that may be obstacles to success” is how Messuri, assistant dean for academic affairs and director of accessibility and academic support, describes her role, working with almost 200 students a year. “Ultimately we try together to find ways to get at the unimpeded joys of learning, which is exhilaration, really, at times.”

Toni Messuri calls her recent honor “fruitional,” which is an uncommon word.

Yet it’s an uncommon recognition: an endowed scholarship in her name, given by the family of a 2014 graduate, who made the gift to recognize Messuri’s extraordinary and vital work supporting Saint Michael's students with learning differences.

Messuri’s work began when she was an English adjunct with a habit of using evening hours to offer personal writing help to students with learning differences. In 2000 she was talking to a colleague and expressed the desire to make it her full-time work. “It was as if we’d somehow been touched by

the Holy Spirit,” she recalled. Messuri was able to convey her vision to her supervisors and get the support to make the position a reality.

At first Messuri worked just with first-year students as a liaison for those with special needs, “to help them bridge the transition.” However, with continued support alongside growing need and evidence that the work was helping students, she widened her scope to serve students from all four class years. Today her office handles nearly 200 clients at a given time, an accomplishment that she’s keen to note is possible only through partnering with faculty and families and with the support of her colleagues on campus.

The Antonia Messuri Endowed Scholarship is renewable and awarded starting in a student’s sophomore year. As for the gift that created it, Messuri says, “it’s really knocked me off my feet with gratitude.”

Gifts Enable Students to Give Back Donors who create scholarships often understand or know the immediate student benefactors of it. Sometimes, however, it is hard to know or guess how a scholarship might help students. And in turn, it's difficult to imagine how those students end up helping people in other parts of the world — 10 years after the scholarship was created.

Ruba Orfali '16 grew up in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and discovered Saint Michael’s when she moved to the area with her husband, a University of Vermont neuroscience graduate student. After taking some required courses at the Community College of Vermont, Orfali found her place at Saint Michael’s.

Orfali’s hard work inside and outside the classroom over the next few years was recognized when she received one of two Professor John Carvellas Scholarships in Economics for 2015–16. The Carvellas Scholarship recipients are selected on the recommendation of the chair of the Department of Economics.

During a week over the winter break in early 2016, Orfali volunteered as an Arabic translator for a Vermont-based medical team that traveled to makeshift camps on the Greek isle of Lesbos to help refugees. During that time, on average, 2000 people per day were arriving over the perilous Mediterranean Sea in smugglers’ boats as they fled

the wars in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere. The desire to go abroad and help, and her heightened awareness of the migration crisis created by wars in the Middle East, came from an assignment to research German and French economic and social policies on the integration of immigrants. “I was struck by how big a problem it is, and was interested in maybe volunteering and helping them in some way – but I didn’t know where to start.”

About that time, she heard by chance of “Team Vermont,” a group of doctors and nurses from the Burlington area preparing to travel to a refugee camp on the Greek island to offer medical help.

“I immediately contacted them and said ‘listen, I speak Arabic – maybe I can translate and I would love to join you if possible.’”

The clinic where she volunteered was the only one in the area open 24/7 for the refugees. Orfali experienced sights, smells, and sounds in the clinic

that were new and raw for her, particularly in the medical treatment areas, where her job was to translate so patients and staff could communicate – but she stayed with it. The first day’s shift was 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., but then her team went to night shifts – 11 p.m. to 9:30 a.m.

Some lasting memories for Orfali included helping move a large woman on a stretcher in the dark of night from a bus coming up from the shore with new arrivals, and encountering so many children who were “clearly dealing with PTSD from the way they were reacting to sudden movements, although, some kids were so happy to be safe, they’re just laughing and giggling.”

The Professor John Carvellas Scholarship in Economics was established in 2006 to recognize Carvellas for his exceptional teaching, mentoring talents, and friendship, and provide financial support to students who want to pursue a degree in economics. Thanks to consistent support from donors, each year two students benefit from this scholarship.

Scholarship Impact In 2015–16, Saint Michael’s College’s donor-supported scholarship funds was able to help 282 different students. A full $1,512,915 went directly to helping students pay for their education at Saint Michael's.

Eight new scholarships were established during 2015–16.

John K. '58 and Marilyn Aneser Family Scholarship

by John and Marilyn’s children and spouses

Volunteer Support and Involvement

John and Eleanor McGuinness and Thomas and Nancee McManus Scholarship

by Michael McGuinness '73

Robert D. Brennan Endowed Scholarship

Antonio Messuri Endowed Scholarship

through an estate gift from Robert D. Brennan

by anonymous donors

Keady Family Scholarship

Benjamin Mottola '90 Scholarship

by George '69 and Jackie Keady

by Ben Mottola '90

Walter A. '59 and Louise M. Kennedy Scholarship

Mutrie Family Term Scholarship

by Walter Kennedy '59 and Louise Kennedy

by George Mutrie '60

“Alumni volunteers are truly the lifeblood of the College and the Alumni Association. They play an intrinsic role in keeping their friends and classmates connected to St. Mike’s through programming and events, assisting in the recruitment of new students, and counseling students on their career paths with advice, shadowing opportunities, and internships. Working with volunteers is the best part of my job; their dedication and love for the College is why I do what I do.”

— Angela Armour '99, M'09, Director of Alumni and Parent Relations

28

JOB SHADOW HOSTS

30

CAREER SYMPOSIUM PANELISTS

39

CLASS AGENTS

522

PURPLE & GOLD VOLUNTEERS

“St. Mike's has been a second family to me, a home away from home, as they say. Over the years, I have felt a strong desire to give back to SMC and its students. No matter how small or large the gesture, volunteering has always been a rewarding experience.”

— T homas Hanna '87, Alumni Board of Directors, former Alumnus of the Year, club leader, and 2017 Reunion committee member

“ It is indeed rare that under-

graduates get to undertake important research working so closely with accomplished faculty mentors. I believe we have become one of the best colleges for student research.

”

— K aren Talentino, vice president for Academic Affairs, professor of biology, and administrator of undergraduate research programs

“ I’m looking at macro invertebrate

communities and how those differ between forested sites and urban areas, and how urbanization has affected macro invertebrate communities and the ecosystem.

”

—Z achary LaPoint '17 Biology, St. Albans, VT

“ I started doing all this research

Investing in Student Research It has long been a hallmark of a Saint Michael’s College education to engage in undergraduate research. Our generous donors continued to support these experiences heavily in 2016, providing students an incomparable way to apply their learning, build their skills, and work closely with faculty to reach important findings that advance knowledge in a variety of areas.

Research areas have included: • • • • •

Literacy & Media Plant Growth and Yield American Indians Syrian Music Composition Heartbeat System of Leeches

• • • •

Immunological Reactivity Pollutants in Ground Water Central Nervous System of Spiders Prostate Cancer

about how well-meaning environmental education can be a real abstraction for fourth graders... telling them that there’s not enough water in California, or talking about the rainforest…it’s not real to kids.

”

—N icole Corneau '17 Environmental Studies/Education, Ashaway, RI

“ It is deeply satisfying to watch my research students unfold their full potential and become experts in their chosen fields. I am honored and grateful to be part of their journey to success.

”

— Ruth Fabian-Fine, professor of neuroscience and faculty research advisor

Saint Michael’s College One Winooski Park, Box 6 Colchester, VT 05439 smcvt.edu