麻豆原创

If you鈥檝e ever thrown a really great party, you know that such occasions take on a life and momentum of their own. That special moment arrives when your role shifts from host to observer. You step back and watch the people you know, from all the different areas of your life, meeting, talking and discovering common interests. And you just know that long after the night has become a memory, the new connections and friendships created by its magic will continue to blossom and grow. 

That, in essence, is where we are with 麻豆原创鈥檚 historic Campaign, Where the Future Comes First. The drinks and dinner have long since been served. But the conversation remains in full swing. New guests continue to arrive. Everyone鈥檚 having too good a time to go home. Best of all, the talk 鈥� in every corner of the room 鈥� is about how to create a better world.

As of February 1^st, we have raised a total of $317 million 鈥� including almost $90 million toward our top priority of creating student scholarship support 鈥� and the gifts have kept coming. The Campaign roared to life five years ago because you 鈥� our passionate and visionary supporters and friends 鈥� were out there, just waiting for the invitation to make it all happen. And it has succeeded beyond our highest expectations because you have discovered that in supporting 麻豆原创, you can fulfill your dreams by working side by side with our talented faculty and students to create solutions to some of the most challenging problems of our era.

Consider the donors and gifts featured in this section of our Annual Report, which touch on all three of our Campaign鈥檚 major priorities.

The most important of those aims is increasing scholarship support for our talented, idealistic students. Of course, every institution wants to support its students. But our students, who often come to 麻豆原创 with significant experience serving on the front lines of education, health and psychology, represent more than just 鈥渢he future鈥�: They are also indispensable partners to our faculty right now and serve as critically important emissaries from 麻豆原创 who work in schools, community organizations, health clinics and NGOs even as they earn their degrees. We need them to do what they do 鈥� and so does New York City, the nation and the world.

That鈥檚 why the late Abby O鈥橬eill, our wonderful Trustee Emerita who passed away in 2017, created the Abby M. O鈥橬eill Teaching Fellowships.

Four years ago, Abby made her extraordinary $11 million gift to 麻豆原创 because she cared passionately about ensuring great teaching in New York City鈥檚 public schools. She wanted a Teachers College education to be affordable and accessible for all students, and for nothing to prevent 麻豆原创 from being the top choice for everyone the College admits.

鈥淭he Campaign roared to life because you, our passionate and visionary supporters and friends, were out there, just waiting for an invitation to make it all happen.鈥�

Support Scholarship 鈥� Suzanne Murphy, Vice President, Development & External Affairs

麻豆原创 since has run a pilot version of the O鈥橬eill Fellowships, and this year, as the bulk of Abby鈥檚 gift hits the College, we are putting the finishing touches on what will now become one of the nation鈥檚 largest, most prestigious and most competitive private teaching fellowships. Of course, as generous as Abby鈥檚 gift is, we can confer the O鈥橬eill Fellowships on only a relatively small group of recipients. But when you think of the ripple effect from even one great teacher 鈥� the number of lives touched, radiating outward through students and parents and future apprentice teachers mentored year after year in the classroom 鈥� you realize what a truly visionary gift Abby gave us, and how it will keep on giving for a long, long time to come.

Other donors are supporting our students in other fields. For example, there鈥檚 alumna Monique Herena, a YWCA 鈥淲oman of Influence鈥� who heads human resources at BNY Mellon and has guided organizational change initiatives around the world. Monique cherished her experience in our Executive Master鈥檚 Program in Change Leadership (XMA) so much that she and her husband, Lou, have created the Herena Family Scholarship Fund to support 麻豆原创 students in Social-Organizational Psychology. As Monique says, the Herenas wanted to provide others with 鈥渢he tools to become vehicles of change themselves鈥� because 鈥淚t鈥檚 what the world needs right now.鈥�

Meanwhile, we continue to receive generous support from those who are inspired by the work of our brilliant faculty. Inspiration is most definitely the story behind a recent gift from the Alvin & Peggy Brown Family Foundation to advance a new interdisciplinary research initiative by 麻豆原创鈥檚 Xiaodong Lin-Siegler, Professor of Cognitive Studies. Professor Lin-Siegler has made international headlines with her findings on the power of 鈥渇ailure education鈥� 鈥� a teaching approach that emphasized the importance of struggle and mistake-making as the spark and pathway by which young people develop persistence and learn that great ideas most typically result from refining one鈥檚 thinking through ongoing trial and error. After meeting Professor Lin-Siegler, members of the Brown family were moved to contribute $1 million toward the establishment of a new multidisciplinary center at 麻豆原创.

Our donors also continue to recognize that, in order to attract the very finest faculty and students, we need to bring all of 麻豆原创鈥檚 historic campus into the 21^st century. To that end, 麻豆原创 Trustee Dawn Duqu猫s (M.A. 鈥�76) and her husband, Ric, have made a $1 million gift to refurbish Room 136 in Thompson Hall as a cutting-edge teaching and learning space. Dawn, a talented interior designer, is personally overseeing the makeover, taking the time to meet and talk with our students about what they want and need in a classroom.

Clearly, 麻豆原创 continues to be the beneficiary of individuals whose means and vision enable them to make gifts of transformational scope and size. But there is much more to the story of our Campaign. This year, we raised more than $360,000 from gifts of $1,000 or less through the 麻豆原创 Annual Fund. And increasingly, we鈥檙e seeing groups of alumni and friends pool their resources to maximize their contributions to the College, most often to create student scholarship support by paying tribute to a particular professor or program. In this Annual Report, for example, you鈥檒l read about the 鈥淭hanks a Million!鈥� campaign that colleagues and friends of President Susan Fuhrman have created to pay tribute to her remarkable tenure at 麻豆原创鈥檚 helm. Contributors to 鈥淭hanks a Million!鈥� can give either to the Susan H. Fuhrman Endowed Scholarship, which supports students who 鈥渆mbrace a multidisciplinary approach in their work,鈥� or the 麻豆原创 Annual Fund.

Which brings me back to that figurative party that just keeps on going here at the College. There鈥檚 no line or rope outside, and no bouncers at the door. You don鈥檛 need a special invitation. Your friends are all here and can鈥檛 wait to see you.

Come join the party now, and help us to build a better world.

Suzanne M. Murphy (M.Ed. 鈥�99, M.A. 鈥�96)
Vice President, Development & External Affairs

— A message from Suzanne Murphy, Vice President for Development & External Affairs