“It’s hard to quantify the power of a program like the one Rhea Schwartz and Paul Wolff have created. The Schwartz Fellows Program will be one of the largest and most prestigious undergraduate awards in the college,” said Clarence Lang, Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts. “It means that from now on, select liberal arts students will have the means to build on their knowledge and skills and do good in the world after they graduate. As the cadre of Schwartz Fellows grows over the years, the college, and especially our students, will benefit from the experiences they share. It would be an understatement to say I am deeply grateful to Rhea and Paul for their continuing generosity.”
How it began
Rhea Schwartz grew up in Brooklyn, New York, at a time when “money was a big issue” for her family, she said. Though she was accepted to several of the “Seven Sisters” — seven highly selective liberal arts women’s colleges located in the northeastern United States — Schwartz said she didn’t receive enough scholarship money to attend any of them. Not wanting to stay in New York for college, Schwartz visited Penn State.
“I thought Penn State had the ideal classic campus, and I just loved it,” she said. “A charming university town. Old Main. A football team. An opportunity for a great education. What more could I want? So, off I went. I truly loved every minute of my time at Penn State.”
After graduating from Penn State with a degree in French as well as a teaching degree, Schwartz earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. She retired following a distinguished career that included stints with a law firm, the United States Department of Education, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Center for Israeli Studies at American University. Wolff retired after decades as a civil and criminal litigation attorney with Williams and Connolly, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm. He earned his juris doctorate at Harvard University after completing his undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, where the couple established a similar fellows program.
“Paul feels the same way about Wisconsin as I do about Penn State,” Schwartz said.
The two were introduced to each other by one of Schwartz’s law professors while Schwartz was a student at Georgetown. They didn’t begin dating, however, until a few years later; Schwartz had moved to Chicago to practice law but returned to Washington, D.C. After having dinner together one evening, “we just started hanging out with each other and got married the following year,” Schwartz said. “We’ve been married for 45 years, which I say is not enough.”
“No, it isn’t!” Wolff echoed.
Both Schwartz and Wolff said they found common ground in their Jewish heritage and humble backgrounds, and that they have been philanthropic to the extent they were able since the beginning of their marriage.
“About 30 years ago, we had a financial windfall and set up a family foundation,” Wolff explained. “But before that, we gave money every year to various charities. We were driven by the examples set by both of our mothers, neither of whom had a lot of money but always tried to find some money, even if it was just a few dollars, to give to charity.”
“In the Jewish world, there’s a phrase, ‘tikkun olam,’ that literally means ‘repairing the world,’” Schwartz said. “It is variously translated as ‘doing good’ or ‘charitable endeavors,’ and it is a foundational element of Jewish life. No matter what you have, no matter how little you have, it is your obligation to do for others. It’s something we were both raised on, and when we got married, we realized how similar our views were, so we always gave some money to a variety of charities – educational, religious, cultural, etc.”
Penn State has been one of the major beneficiaries of that philanthropy. Just in the last few years, Schwartz and Wolff have established the Rhea S. Schwartz Educational Equity Achievement Scholarship in Undergraduate Education and the Rhea S. Schwartz Scholars Program at Penn State in the College of the Liberal Arts, which supports students through the college’s Jewish Studies program. They also made a major pledge to the new Palmer Museum of Art facility that will be located adjacent to The Arboretum at Penn State. Their latest gift to create the Rhea S. Schwartz Fellows Program reflects their continuing desire to make a difference for students, both while attending and after graduating from Penn State.
Candidates for the Schwartz Fellows Program can be nominated or self-nominate and will be required to submit a detailed project proposal, which will be evaluated by a committee appointed by the dean. That committee will consider students’ academic achievement, service to Penn State and service to the greater community beyond Penn State. The selected candidate(s) will be expected to report on their experience periodically and return to campus at the conclusion of their project to make a presentation to the liberal arts community.
“Most of all, this fellowship is about encouraging someone to do good in the world,” Schwartz concluded. “Perhaps it will be the catalyst for more good to be done. For me, there can be no greater gift.”
The Rhea S. Schwartz Fellows Program in the College of the Liberal Arts helps to advance "A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence," a focused campaign that seeks to elevate Penn State’s position as a leading public university in a world defined by rapid change and global connections. With support from devoted benefactors who believe in Penn State and its mission, “A Greater Penn State” seeks to fulfill the three key imperatives of a 21st-century public university: keeping the doors to higher education open to hardworking students regardless of financial well-being; creating transformative experiences that go beyond the classroom; and impacting the world by serving communities and fueling discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. To learn more about “A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence,” visit greaterpennstate.psu.edu.