Generosity benefits current and future students

Ever since she was 7 years old, sophomore Daria Resnick has wanted to follow in the footsteps of her caring and supportive second-grade teacher.

Now, thanks to the generosity of alumni who attended UD five decades ago, Resnick will find her career path a bit smoother. The Class of 1957, which celebrated its 50-year reunion in October, has established a need-based scholarship and raised more than $100,000 to support it.

Resnick, an elementary education major with a concentration in special education, has been selected as the first recipient.

“It was such an honor to be chosen and such a great feeling to know that my hard work has been recognized in this way,” Resnick says. “I’m very grateful to these alumni, and I think it’s amazing that they were generous enough and dedicated enough to create a scholarship and raise so much money for it. It’s been 50 years since they were undergraduates, but they still cared enough to help students today.”

She says she chose UD specifically because of the reputation and structure of its education program for prospective elementary school teachers. Other universities she considered offered students less hands-on experience in the classroom, she says.

Resnick works part time during the school year as a waitress and for the past five years has worked at a camp near her New Jersey home in the summer.

“I love the camp and the kids there,” she says. “Every summer, it just reaffirms my desire to become a teacher.”

Members of the Class of 1957 decided to create a scholarship fund as a class gift and, in the year leading up to their 50-year reunion, they made donations and received gifts that, shortly before Homecoming, reached $100,000.

“It has been an absolute joy working with the Class of 1957 reunion gift committee and helping them turn a dream into reality,” says Heather Barron, associate director of the Office of Annual Giving. “Their kindness and generosity will impact so many UD students.”

Barbara Cubberley Schalick, a member of the reunion gift committee, says her and her classmates’ happy memories of their own student years make establishing a scholarship especially appropriate.

“What we have accomplished this year will aid young people with tuition scholarships for years to come,” she says. “I hope their experiences at Delaware will be as fulfilling as mine.”