Annual Giving

A legacy behind them
Class of 2007 gift bolsters scholarship fund

Members of the Class of 2007 present their check to Dean Nils Olsen. Committee Members include: Danielle Barrett Carolina Felix Victor Gonzalez Rachel Hezel Meghan Mazzacone Melissa Piotrowicz Renee Rozier Jacia Smith Ray Walter Denetra Williams

Closing in on the end of three years at the Law School, members of UB Law's Class of 2007 knew all too well what it felt like to write all those tuition checks. So it is only fitting that their class gift to the school will go to help the next generation of law students meet the costs of legal education.

In "the most successful campaign yet," according to Jill M. Domagala, assistant director of development programs, the class had a 42 percent participation rate and, including a matching gift from the school, raised $5,619 for the Graduating Class Gift Scholarship. That fund grows with each class gift, and generates scholarship dollars for multiple current students.

"We try to encourage the committee to stick with it and help these graduating students get into the habit of giving," Domagala said. "I think it is a really nice gesture for the graduating class to give back to the current students."

Jacia Smith '07, a student assistant in UB Law's development office, had the challenge of motivating her fellow third-years to become philanthropists. Smith, who served as president of the Student Bar Association in her third year of Law School, assembled a committee of 10 people and said their goal was for each to enlist 10 classmates. Some, she said, came up with an even longer list.

From a bar night to kick off the campaign to the wrap-up event held in the Law Library, Smith said the effort entailed "a lot of e-mails, a lot of face-to-face in class, to encourage people to know how important it was to give. We had people who were part of clubs letting people in those clubs know what it was about. We got a lot of word-of-mouth."

The knowledge that the money raised would go for financial assistance, she said, helped in the pitch. "We all wish we had more scholarships," she said. "And we stressed the importance of giving, in that it helps the Law School to continue to expand the curriculum and bring in new professors, making the school one that we can continue to be proud of.

"Most people are not averse to giving," said Smith, who now is employed by the law firm Harris Beech in Rochester, N.Y. "But you just have to give the benefits and pitch it to them in a way they can relate to. As alumni, giving is important to us. We just had to put that information out there that it is not just people asking for money – there is a good cause behind it."