Seniors, or soon to be fellow alumni, congratulations! Both on completing your years here, and also on accomplishing something incredible that will have a lasting impact on Sarah Lawrence.
More than half of the senior class came together to support scholarships for future students. As of today, 51.9% of the class has participated in the Senior Class Gift Campaign. We had one of the highest levels of participation from a senior class in the past decade. This has sent the message that we as a class value the experience we had while we were here and want to ensure that future students have access to the same life changing academic experience like the one we received. If you haven’t yet participated yet, but would still like to, gifts can be made through May 31 towards our class campaign.
If we were in person, I would have ask you to look to your right and left again. I would have then explained that one or both of the classmates next to you was a scholarship recipient. Three out of every four students receive financial aid, which enables them to attend Sarah Lawrence, and I am proud to be one of them. This is made possible through the generous support of alumni, parents, friends, and students like us.
There are some very important thank you’s. First to our president, Cristle Collins Judd, for generously matching every senior who contributed to the campaign with a symbolic 20 dollars and 20 cents. Second, thank you to the other generous donors who provided giving challenges throughout the year. And, finally, thank you to all of you: the class of 2020.
Ensuring access to our unique and life changing academic and student experience is what our class gift campaign is all about. As alumni, we have the opportunity to continue the momentum from this year’s campaign and dollar by dollar make it possible for students to attend Sarah Lawrence who wouldn’t otherwise be able to. If we stay engaged we can continue to impact the future of Sarah Lawrence.
Remarks as prepared for delivery