WINTER 2013 | ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE 15
PHILANTHROPY IN ACTION
Personal computers
(
PCs)
come into common use.
The
First-Year Program
is pilot-
ed by 12 faculty and 135 students;
it becomes a requirement in 1988.
1992
1987
1989
1980
s
The
Berlin Wall,
erected in the after-
math of World War
II, is torn down.
Internet access be-
comes available to
the public.
“
You may not go back
every year to visit, but
through giving you can
still feel connected to
St. Lawrence,” says Mi-
chaela Stewart ’08.
Stewart knows the feel-
ing well, having made
her first unrestricted
gift to the St. Lawrence
Fund this year.
“
Everyone is in some
sort of financial position
to give, no matter how small,” she says.
After earning her master’s degree in
public administration at Cornell, Stew-
art accepted a job as assistant director
of admissions at the Emma Willard
School, a small boarding school that
employs several other Laurentians.
She started a new position as assistant
director of undergraduate affinity pro-
grams at Cornell last September.
“
St. Lawrence did a great job of teach-
ing me the writing and public speaking
skills I needed,” she says.
“
I enjoy working with alumni
because of the established connection
they feel with their alma mater,” Stew-
art says. As a member of the Student
Alumni Association, she
discovered she liked meet-
ing new people and learn-
ing about what they shared
in common. The Tri-Delta
sister also played for the
women’s lacrosse team for
a season and studied on
St. Lawrence’s program in
China.
Giving supports many fea-
tures of student life, from
international programs to
athletics. Knowing how central those
aspects were to her own student experi-
ence, Stewart plans to continue giving
back to St. Lawrence annually. “It’s
awesome to see updates to the student
center, or new computers around cam-
pus, and to know that I, in some way,
contributed to that,” she says.
“
It’s so important to give,” Stewart
adds. “It makes you feel more con-
nected to St. Lawrence, and remember
what it was about those four years that
you loved so much.”
Connecting
by Giving
by Allison Shea ’13
Alli Shea, of Roslyn, N.Y., was a
writing intern in the University
Communications office last fall.
MAY 30 – JUNE 2
alumni.stlawu.edu/reunion