Opening Doors for First-Generation College Students
“This scholarship is a way for us to participate in the community we enjoyed at Georgia Tech even though we live many miles away.”
Amanda H. Widmaier, IE 2009, M.S. HS 2010, and Kevin M. Widmaier, PUBP 2008, value community. The couple, who live and work in New York, say finding a Georgia Tech community there was important. “Then, when we began volunteering, we found DREAM in the New York area, and that became a part of our community, too,” Amanda said.
DREAM provides academic tutoring, after-school sports and other enrichment opportunities, and runs charter schools in East Harlem and the South Bronx. The school focuses on improving students’ literacy/math skills and high school graduation rates, and seeks to prepare mostly first-generation students for college.
As the Widmaiers continued volunteering with DREAM, experienced success in their own careers, and started a family, they began to think about what sort of impact they could make through philanthropy. Amanda is Senior Director of Clinical Informatics, Mt. Sinai Health System, and Kevin is a partner and Head of Portfolio Management for the multifamily office, BBR Partners. They both credit Georgia Tech as a foundation of their career success and want to help ensure that other young people have similar opportunities.
The couple established a Georgia Tech scholarship a few years ago, but recently made a planned gift that will fully endow the Widmaier Family Scholarship in the Ivan Allen College. The scholarship is for first-generation college students with demonstrated financial need, and includes a preference for DREAM students.
“We believe that attracting and retaining the best students — while supporting a stronger liberal arts college — makes Georgia Tech a broader, more well-rounded institution,” Kevin said.