Alumni couple gives $500,000 for Trustee Scholarship in liberal arts

University Park, Pa. -- Penn State alumni Linda and Jonathan Strumpf have given $500,000 to endow a scholarship in the College of the Liberal Arts for students who have financial need. First preference for the Linda and Jonathan Strumpf Trustee Scholarship, the couple's third scholarship supporting the liberal arts at the University, will go to students who are concurrently enrolled in the Schreyer Honors College.

The Strumpfs, who live in Sands Point, N.Y., are both 1969 liberal arts graduates. Linda Strumpf majored in economics and later received a master of business administration from New York University. She serves on Penn State's Board of Trustees and is vice president and chief investment officer of the Ford Foundation, a global organization whose grant-making goals are to reduce poverty, promote international cooperation and advance human achievement through education and the arts.

Jonathan Strumpf majored in psychology at Penn State and earned a doctorate in school psychology from NYU. He is a psychologist at Hollow Hills High School East in Dix Hills, N.Y.

"Our Penn State liberal arts educations enabled both of us to have wonderful careers dedicated to helping other people," Linda Strumpf said of the couple's most recent scholarship. "We both feel it is important to support intellectually talented students who have financial need so they can benefit from the liberal arts education they would receive at Penn State."

The Strumpfs' two previous scholarships are the Sylvia and David Brodsky Memorial Trustee Scholarship and the Linda Brodsky Strumpf and Jonathan A. Strumpf Scholarship. Through these two scholarships, the couple has assisted nearly 50 students. Linda Strumpf said they focus their giving on undergraduates because bachelor's degrees serve as the stepping stone to all others.

The Trustee Matching Scholarship Program aims to ensure that a Penn State education is accessible to qualified students, regardless of their financial means. Implemented in 2002 upon approval by the University's Board of Trustees, the program is unique in that the University matches 5 percent of the principal of each gift annually and combines these funds with income from the endowment to effectively double the financial impact of the scholarship. The program assisted about 4,4000 students University-wide in 2006-07.

"The Strumpfs' new gift augments their continuing support of students' access to Penn State," said Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts. "Their gift will allow us to target and support the most academically talented students who also have considerable financial need. These outstanding students are highly sought after, and this scholarship support will allow the college to recruit more of them. We are deeply grateful for their leadership in this arena."