Helping students pursue their dreams

A couple of years ago, David Plastino, AS ’78, helped his daughter Sarah celebrate an award she had received in college that enabled her to spend time in a Mexican village, studying cross-border immigration issues and honing her Spanish language skills.

While attending a dinner recognizing her and other Lucius Burch Fellows at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Plastino says he was struck by what the program had meant to the students involved. They all spoke about the unique educational opportunities they had been given, he says, and how much they had learned by devising and then carrying out their own enrichment projects funded by the program.

“It was Sarah’s experience that introduced me to the idea of creating a way for students to pursue a dream—something educational that they have a passion for but something they can’t do in a traditional academic setting,” Plastino says. “When I was at the Burch dinners, I thought, ‘This is a pretty neat idea.’ It seemed like something that could be replicated.”
And now, through his generous gift to UD, a similar program has been created in Delaware. The first Plastino Scholars were honored in 2007, with a second group selected and recognized this spring.

The Plastino Scholarships are closely modeled on the Burch Fellowship program. Applicants design their own proposal for fieldwork, study abroad, service learning or any other specialized enrichment activity. Recipients, chosen by a faculty panel, can come from any college or major and have no restriction on the type of proposal they make.

According to the program’s guidelines, the grants are designed to support self-designed, off-campus learning experiences that make a transformational difference in the lives of the recipients and enable them to pursue a passionate interest to a degree not otherwise possible. To be considered, students must present convincing evidence of exceptional intellectual, creative, civic or leadership ability and must propose an experience that extends well beyond the scope of an academic course, summer job or internship.

Up to four Plastino Scholarships are awarded each year, with the amount of each varying up to $6,000, depending on the nature of the proposed experience.

As the program is fully implemented in coming years, Plastino says he hopes the annual dinner will give new recipients the chance to hear from former scholars, creating an ongoing community of those who shared the honor and the experience.

“Just as there were people who helped me, this is an opportunity for me to thank them by helping other students today,” he says. “I hope that these students will complete the circle someday by being philanthropic themselves.”

At a dinner in May, four students—three newly selected and one previous recipient who deferred her research from last year—were honored as Plastino Scholars. They are Victoria Lindsay Clark, AS ’08; Joshua Alexander Kling, CHEP ’09; Gina Madeeha Siddiqui, AS ’10; and Amy Hope Weniger, AS ’09.

Clark, with majors in English and bassoon performance, will use the stipend to cover travel and living expenses for a stay at Cardiff University in Wales, where she will conduct research on the Welsh bardic tradition. She says her ultimate goal is to teach interdisciplinary courses that combine Welsh culture, literature and music at a university.

Kling, majoring in hotel, restaurant and institutional management, will use the grant money to fund a tour of wineries in France and Italy, and, after returning, to take an introductory sommelier exam later in the summer. His passion for wine and food have earned him the coveted position of lunchtime sauté chef at Vita Nova, UD’s student-run restaurant.

Siddiqui, who is double-majoring in international relations and economics and plans to go on to medical school after graduation, will take two trips abroad with the grant, one to Pakistan (deferred last year due to safety concerns) and one to Chile. In both countries, she will conduct needs-based assessments on global health issues.

Weniger, a student in the medical scholars program who is majoring in biological sciences with a minor in Spanish, will use the grant to fund a trip to Peru, where she will assist in birthing centers and teach preventive health care
in schools.

Plastino earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry at UD and a master of business administration degree in 1981 from the University of Michigan. He worked for the global investment firm Goldman Sachs, becoming vice president of investments, until 1995, when he joined UBS Financial Services.

He is now senior vice president of investments at UBS in Philadelphia.

In addition to establishing the Plastino Scholars, he has made another gift to the University for an unrelated program, which provides a stipend for up to six students a year in chemistry/biochemistry to conduct undergraduate summer research.