With blue skies overhead and green fairways before them, 132 alumni and friends of Stony Brook University took to the Huntington Country Club greens on June 26, 2017 to raise money for student scholarships. And they didn’t disappoint. In fact, they’re calling it a hole-in-one.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Stony Brook Alumni Association’s Scholarship Golf Classic topped its previous years’ total. The event raised $127,000.
Since its inception, the annual golf outing has funded $440,000 in student scholarships. During the past school year, 11 Alumni Association student awards, 13 Alumni Association Dean’s Choice Awards, and two four-year half-tuition scholarships were distributed thanks to funds raised by the Scholarship Golf Classic.
Robert Maloney ’17, Alexandra DeRosa ’18, Kwabena Buscia ’17, Vahideh Rasekhi ’18
“The (Scholarship Golf Classic) has allowed the Alumni Association to provide much needed scholarship funds to some extremely talented and deserving students,” said Stony Brook Alumni Association President Bedel Saget ’88, multimedia and graphics editor at The New York Times.
“I’m extremely proud of all of our alumni who came to support the event this year,” Saget said. “We wouldn’t have this continued success without their participation and we hope to continue to grow this community.”
Saget also commended and congratulated the Alumni Association’s Golf Committee and staff on their incredible energy and enthusiasm throughout the planning process and for their continued effort to grow Stony Brook’s culture of giving.
That culture was prominent throughout the daylong event, inspiring three previous scholarship recipients: Kwabena Buscia ’17, Naveen Mallangada ’17 and Jason Shank ’09, ’11.
“(Alumni) giving inspires me to pursue my passions, to be successful and in turn give back to students. I know how it feels to receive such a gift; it goes a long way,” Buscia said, a banking analyst at JPMorgan Chase, who also noted that such support literally gives students the time to realize their goals and ambitions. Donor support also helps fill an income “gap” so many students can experience when they choose to capitalize on leadership or volunteer positions.
For Mallangada, the opportunity to speak with donors face-to-face carried an invaluable opportunity. “You hear their own lessons and experiences,” Mallangada said, who begins a four-year journey at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine in August. “In that way, they not only are supporting you monetarily, they’re also guiding you in how you choose to go forward into your studies and beyond.”
Well into his career, Jason Shank ’09, ’11, project manager at E-J Electric Installation Co., said that the 2009 and 2010 Babak Movahedi Award and Life Member Award, respectively, helped him land his first post-graduation job. “My employer was intrigued by these awards, suggesting that they offered clarity on what kind of person I was before they even met me,” he said, clearly grateful.
For Saget, the Alumni Association and all attendees, these sorts of success stories illustrate why they volunteer their time and talent. “We want to have an impact on and to encourage these students,” he said, “Now we need to continue to build a strong alumni base that can provide a network of support for the students who come after us.”
With special thanks to the Alumni Association Golf Committee, including:
- Anthony Casino, DDS ’78, Chair
- Matthew Colson, Executive Director of Alumni Relations
- Joe Crook ’80
- Robert Cuccaro ’96
- David Leviton ’84
- Robert Stafford ’72, ’82, Past President of the Stony Brook Alumni Association
- Neil Butterklee ’80, ’82
- Kimberly Parris, Advancement Events Coordinator
—Jordan Chapman
To view additional photos of the 2017 Scholarship Golf Classic, click here.
To learn more about the Alumni Association Annual Student Awards and other opportunities for students from the Stony Brook Alumni Association, click here.
