Wanting to make a difference, Tony and Jeanette Agnone created the Anthony M. and Jeanette A. Agnone Trustee Scholarship to help qualified students obtain Penn State educations.
“Investing in young adults’ education is the best way to help them to become better educated and hopefully, better citizens,” said Tony Agnone, Class of ’58, who is retired from General Electric. “And with the trustee scholarship, we get more bang for the buck.”
That is because the University’s latest scholarship program includes a match from the Penn State Trustee fund. The Agnones’ scholarship grew even more as their gift was first matched by The GE Foundation.
This year, 23 IST undergraduate students at University Park received between $1,250 and $2,500 from trustee scholarships. In addition to the Agnones’, IST holds five others: the Robert C. Jubelirer Trustee Scholarship; the Susan Blake Shuman Trustee Scholarship; the Bell Family Trustee Scholarship; the David and Deborah Reese Trustee Scholarship; and most recently, the Vis.align Trustee Scholarship.
Concerned about rising tuition, the University established the Trustee Scholarship Program in July 2002 with a goal of raising $100 million by June 2007 for qualified students financially strapped by rising tuition.
Trustee Scholarships can be restricted to a college or campus. They require a minimum outright gift of $50,000 and can carry the donor’s name.
Unlike other scholarships, contributions to the Trustee Scholarship program are matched by funds from Penn State, adding 5 percent of the original gift to the spendable income from the endowment. That match, in effect, doubles the funds available.
For information on how to establish a trustee scholarship in IST, call (814) 863-7548 or visit http://ist.psu.edu/partnerships.
