UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State alumni Cynthia Ade and Jeffrey Perrone have established the Cynthia Ade and Jeffrey Perrone Trustee Scholarship in the Penn State Smeal College of Business. With gift-matching funds from the Deloitte Foundation, a not-for-profit organization affiliated with Perrone's employer, Deloitte, the endowment will be valued at $125,000, and its impact also will be doubled with support from the University's Trustee Matching Scholarship Program.
"I'm very thankful for Jeffrey and Cynthia's support of need-based scholarships at Smeal," said James B. Thomas, the John and Becky Surma Dean of Smeal. "Now, more than ever, we must take steps to ensure that all who possess the skills and ambition to attend Penn State have the financial means to do so. Jeffrey and Cynthia's endowment will help generations of Penn State students pursue the dream of a college education."
Ade is a 1980 graduate of the Penn State College of Engineering and worked for 17 years at Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies. Perrone is a 1979 alumnus of Smeal with a degree in accounting. A tax partner in the Boston office of Deloitte Tax LLP, Perrone has been with the firm since he graduated from Smeal. Through Perrone's affiliation with Deloitte, the gift has secured additional support through the Deloitte Foundation, a not-for-profit organization supporting teaching, research, and curriculum innovation in accounting, business, and related fields within the United States.
Ade and Perrone established the scholarship in honor of their parents, Mildred and John Ade and Maebelle and Frank Perrone. "They grew up during The Great Depression and Frank and John both served in World War II," Ade writes in the scholarship's legacy statement. "Through their hard work, love, support, and the values by which they lived, they gave us the gift of opportunity."
The Trustee Matching Scholarship Program maximizes the impact of private giving while directing funds to students as quickly as possible, meeting the urgent need for scholarship support. In this groundbreaking philanthropic model, Penn State matches 5 percent of the total pledge or gift at the time a Trustee Scholarship is created, making funds available immediately for student awards. This University match, which is approximately equal to the endowment's annual spendable income, continues in perpetuity, doubling the support available for students with financial need.
The Cynthia Ade and Jeffrey Perrone Trustee Scholarship will be awarded annually to support students with financial need who represent minority populations.
"We hope that this scholarship, along with hard work, dedication and good fortune, will allow the recipient to someday offer the gift of opportunity to another deserving student," Perrone says.
The Cynthia Ade and Jeffrey Perrone Trustee Scholarship will help the Smeal College of Business to reach its goals in For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students. This University-wide effort is directed toward a shared vision of Penn State as the most comprehensive, student-centered research university in America. The University is engaging Penn State's alumni and friends as partners in achieving six key objectives: ensuring student access and opportunity, enhancing honors education, enriching the student experience, building faculty strength and capacity, fostering discovery and creativity, and sustaining the University's tradition of quality. The campaign's top priority is keeping a Penn State degree affordable for students and families. The For the Future campaign is the most ambitious effort of its kind in Penn State's history, with the goal of securing $2 billion by 2014.