“I
want to make a difference in
the lives of students because I want them to make a difference in the
world,” said George A. Weiss W’65, explaining why he had given $20 million
to the University to help provide for student life, faculty support and
financial aid.
The latest gift
to Penn by Weiss, president of Say Yes to Education and of the money-management
firm George Weiss Associates, Inc., will be used to establish a challenge
grant for undergraduate financial aid; to create the Weiss House for innovative
technologies for students in all four of Penn’s undergraduate schools;
to establish an endowed professorship; and to provide support for athletic
priorities.
“Few people have
been greater ambassadors for Penn than George has,” said Dr. Judith Rodin
CW’66, president of the University. “His generosity encompasses his time
and energy and his financial commitment to an extraordinarily broad range
of student and campus life priorities. We are enormously grateful to him
for this latest evidence of his dedication and unwavering support.”
Weiss is perhaps
best known for having founded Say Yes to Education, which combines academic
support and intervention with an offer to pay college tuition or vocational-training
costs for inner-city students [“The Gift,” December 1997]. The program,
based at Penn’s Graduate School of Education, was launched in West Philadelphia
in 1987 and now includes more than 360 students in Philadelphia, Cambridge,
Mass. and Hartford, Conn.
Of the $6 million
designated for financial aid, $5 million will be used to create the Weiss
Challenge Fund for Undergraduate Financial Aid, providing a dollar for
every two dollars committed by other donors.
The Weiss Tech
House will give students interested in any sort of innovative technologies
a setting to develop new products and turn them into businesses.
Weiss, a charter
trustee of the University and athletic overseer who serves as chair of
Penn’s committee on undergraduate financial aid, cited the Hon. Walter
Annenberg W’31 Hon’66 as his inspiration for giving. “I have always taken
to heart a comment he made after making a significant commitment to the
University,” said Weiss. “He said, ‘It is simply a matter of good citizenship.’”
