Healthy students. Healthy university. Healthy community.
When you give to Impact 150, you do more than support Â鶹ÊÓƵ—you strengthen the future we share. Your investment fuels student success, sustains a vibrant and resilient university, and builds healthier communities across Pennsylvania.
Join fellow alumni, parents, friends, employees, and students in shaping Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s next 150 years.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ needs your help in many ways, but we can narrow down the conversation to three basic areas: the proposed college of osteopathic medicine, the Fund for Â鶹ÊÓƵ, and Â鶹ÊÓƵ Athletics.
Benefactors who invest in Â鶹ÊÓƵ students understand that philanthropy opens the doors of opportunity for students—doors that otherwise may never be opened. Members of our giving societies partner with the university to build the foundation for student success. Their investments enable Â鶹ÊÓƵ to grow and to flourish.
Take the opportunity to make a gift that will make a difference.
In her sophomore year at Indiana State College, Ruth Riesenman accepted a post as a resident assistant in Wahr Hall, a women’s dormitory.
Little did she know how fortuitous that decision would be.
After three years as an RA, Riesenman graduated in 1964 and moved to Ohio to teach history. Four years later, she started a master’s program in counseling at Kent State University and received a graduate assistantship to be residence director for a hall housing 600 women. Later, her résumé caught the attention of Washington & Jefferson officials, who tapped her as associate dean for Student Personnel in 1970. That was the first year in the school’s 190-year history that it accepted female students.
In 1979, she moved back to Indiana and found a job at her alma mater, which had since become Â鶹ÊÓƵ. She started as assistant director of Career Services, rose to director, and finally joined the Office of the President, earning a doctorate in administration and policy along the way from the University of Pittsburgh. Riesenman retired from Â鶹ÊÓƵ as executive assistant to the president in 2005.
Today, she is grateful for the opportunities Â鶹ÊÓƵ presented, including that first RA post.
“I always credit Â鶹ÊÓƵ for setting me on the career path that I followed for 42 years,” she said.
That appreciation is a major reason she contributes so generously to Â鶹ÊÓƵ. At the August launch of Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s Impact 150 campaign, she was among donors honored for contributing $100,000 or more. Her primary cause has been the Dr. Ruth A. Riesenman Scholarship, which benefits Cook Honors College students.
Riesenman’s support for undergraduate education stems from her awareness that college costs are steep.
“I was the fifth one in my family to go to college,” she said. She knows her parents worked hard to pay tuition 50 years ago and that the financial strain can be even tougher for families today.
She has also supported Â鶹ÊÓƵ with her time. She served on the Foundation for Â鶹ÊÓƵ board for 14 years and, since 2016, has volunteered on the advancement council for what is now the College of Arts, Humanities, Media, and Public Affairs. Councils like this help Â鶹ÊÓƵ colleges advance their priorities by developing relationships with alumni and area residents.
“Ruth is a true leader,” said Jennifer Luzier Dunsmore ’98, assistant vice president for University Advancement. “She knows so many people, both through her time here and the connections she has made with members of the community. She has helped us make connections with so many people that have given back to Â鶹ÊÓƵ.”
Riesenman said her efforts are inspired by a core belief: “Why wouldn’t you give back to where you worked and had a wonderful career? To me, it’s just something you would do.”
To support Â鶹ÊÓƵ through a gift or service, please call University Advancement at 724-357-5661 or email iup-giving@iup.edu.
They fell in love at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, and Jim and Stephanie Brewer Jozefowicz are quite aware of how lucky they are.
Faculty members in the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Department of Economics, Jim and Stephanie met during their first semester on campus, the fall of 1999. Jim came from New York, and Stephanie came from Texas. Soon after meeting, they were inseparable. They got married, settled in Indiana, and now call it home.
That experience compelled the Jozefowiczes to give back to Â鶹ÊÓƵ. They established an endowed scholarship in their names to aid economics students for years to come and an immediate-use fund in Stephanie’s
name.
“We are deeply blessed by Â鶹ÊÓƵ and by the community,” Stephanie said, “and now it is a wonderful aspect of our lives that we are able to be involved this way.” Jesalyn Fada and Kaitlin Albright, who both graduated in spring 2020, are two recent recipients of awards from the immediate-use fund and of other scholarship funding.
“I’m really proud of myself,” Kaitlin said. “I proved to myself that I have the ability to achieve great things.”
“This has relieved a lot of stress and made things easier,” Jesalyn said. “It will help me strive to find the career I want.”
When Bill Madia ’69, M’71 and Audrey DeLaquil Madia ’70 were students at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, they understood firsthand what it meant to struggle just to keep up.
Bill was a first-generation college student and didn't’t get much financial support from his family, so he had to work multiple part-time jobs to pay for school. Fifty years later, the Madias are making sure some Â鶹ÊÓƵ students don’t have to struggle the way they did.
“What we want to accomplish,” Audrey said, “is being able to help that same kind of student—like we were—today.”
The Madias have given gifts to Â鶹ÊÓƵ that have done just that, allowing students a little breathing room. Isaac Dewar, who grew up in a single-parent household near Pittsburgh, is one of them.
During his first year at Â鶹ÊÓƵ, Isaac worked a 40-hour-a-week job to be able to go to school and work toward his dual degree in physics and applied mathematics. But thanks to a scholarship he earned, he now has the time to apply his education and build his résumé.
He serves as a tutor on campus and is planning to attend graduate school and seek a master’s degree in experimental nuclear physics.
“This [scholarship] has made it much easier,” Isaac said. “It covers the necessities, so I can take care of myself.”
“This has relieved a lot of stress and made things easier,” Jesalyn said. “It will help me strive to find the career I want.”