Private Giving
Penn State Intercom......October 24, 2002

$500,000 gift endows
first Trustee Scholarships

Alumnus Bob Banks and his wife, Jennifer Banks, have endowed the first Trustee Scholarship, part of the University's new initiative to raise $100 million in endowed funds over five years for financially needy students.

The couple designated their $500,000 gift to The Smeal College of Business Administration, where 10 undergraduates have been named Banks Trustee Scholars.

The endowment is the first that the couple has made to the University. Before that, they supported the recent Beaver Stadium expansion with the purchase of a 10-year half-interest in a stadium suite.

The Trustee Scholarship Program features a unique matching component. University funds are combined with income from the donor's endowment when making awards to students, thus increasing the impact of the scholarship. These matching funds -- 5 percent of the gift -- become available as soon as the donor completes scholarship pledge forms and guidelines. To qualify for the program, a donor must make a minimum gift of $50,000, payable over five years.

Bob Banks graduated from Penn State in 1966 with a bachelor's degree in marketing. He is involved in the real estate finance industry, handling both debt and equity financing for apartments on a national basis. He was chairman and chief executive officer of the Midland Cos., headquartered in Clearwater, Fla., until 1999 when he sold the organization. He is currently vice chairman of MuniMae Midland LLC.

Trustee Scholarships are directed to students with the greatest financial need. In 2000-01, 74 percent of University undergraduates received more than $367 million in student financial aid. However, almost 60 percent of those funds (more than $200 million) were in the form of student loans, resulting in an average student loan debt of $17,400 at graduation. The Trustee Scholarship Program, when fully endowed at $100 million, will increase the amount of privately funded endowed spending on academic scholarships, as opposed to loans, by 40 percent.

$300,000 scholarship honors
McQuaide Blasko law partner

The State College-based law firm of McQuaide Blasko has endowed a scholarship to support Penn State students who plan to enroll in the University's Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle.

The scholarship, created with a gift of $300,000, honors John W. Blasko, a partner in the firm and a 1963 Dickinson graduate.

The John W. Blasko Scholarship at the Dickinson School of Law will be awarded on the basis of financial need and academic merit. Students in the Schreyer Honors College who are entering the law school will be eligible. The deans of the law school and the honors college will appoint a committee to select the recipients.

Blasko is a 1958 graduate of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. He joined what is today McQuaide Blasko in 1963. Since then, he has tried hundreds of cases to verdict, usually in complex commercial, banking or medical malpractice trials. The Pennsylvania Defense Institute named him Defense Attorney of the Year in 1996. Blasko also is a past member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association board of governors.

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