“Have a nice day, Amy.”
Those were the mysterious words on an envelope Penn trustee George Weiss W’65 handed to President Amy Gutmann at a scholarship celebration in November.
The surprise inside was indeed a day-brightener: a $14 million check to support undergraduate financial aid.
“We have made tremendous progress in raising money for scholarships, but there’s so much more we need to do,” said Weiss, who is co-chairing the University’s upcoming fundraising campaign. Altogether he has given $20 million to the effort, $14 million of which will be used to set up a challenge program to encourage other donors to contribute $2 million each to undergraduate financial aid.
Increasing access to Penn is one of the three priorities of the president’s Penn Compact. Expressing her gratitude to Weiss, Gutmann said, “When we give talented students of high potential access to the great education that Penn can offer, we advance, in the most important way, the ideals of a democratic society.”
