Scholarship recipients say thank you to donors

Day of Gratitude Portraits_0071 (1)The Office of Development and Alumni Relations recently hosted a Day of Gratitude event for 55 SUNY New Paltz scholarship recipients.

Scholarship winners gathered to share their stories and thank donors for their support. Their testimonials were captured on video and College staff took professional photos of the students who wrote personal “thank you” letters to those who made their scholarships possible.

“Day of Gratitude gives New Paltz scholarship recipients the opportunity to thank donors for their generosity and encourage a culture of philanthropy at the College,” said Eileen Bastien, project director for donor relations and stewardship. “Students shared their impassioned stories and we can’t wait to share these stories with the New Paltz community.”

SUNY New Paltz junior Clare Profous ’15, a double major in political science/international relations and Spanish, was the recipient of the Joseph Y. Resnick Memorial Scholarship and the Edward A. Carroll and Gina O’Brien Carroll Experiential Scholarship.

This past summer Profous completed an internship at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, and last fall studied politics, economics and Intermediate Mandarin Chinese instructed in Spanish in Granada, Spain.

“These scholarships provided me with many amazing opportunities I would have otherwise never experienced,” she said.