Wharton junior Anna Lekander regularly writes e-mail updates about what she is learning in Legal Studies 202 and Nursing 533, the results of the most recent Wharton Women meeting and how she spends her free time frequenting Pottruck Health and Fitness Center.
Lekander is not writing these e-mails to her parents or friends, however, but rather to a couple she has met only twice.
Lekander is the recipient of a named scholarship -- a financial scholarship funneled through Student Financial Services in which students receive money from donors to help cover University costs.
"I'm so lucky to have them," Lekander says. "The donors love to help the undergraduates and get a lot of satisfaction out of it."
Lekander receives the Nancy and Andy Adelson scholarship, which provides financial support to a student who would otherwise be unable to meet the cost of an education at Penn, with a preference for a student in the Wharton School.
Some of the approximately 900 named scholarships specify certain criteria the recipients must meet.
These scholarships take the place of grants or loans in a student's financial aid package, and students also may be awarded more than one scholarship.
According to Director of Development for Undergraduate Financial Aid Joanne Hanna, these named scholarships are vital because Penn has a small endowment compared to the other Ivy League schools.
"Other schools can offer no-loan packages to students," Hanna says. "That's why these named scholarships are so important."
In order to create a donor-recipient relationship, SFS officials ask scholarship students to write to their donors and maintain an ongoing correspondence with them.
In addition, two events are held per year -- one on campus and one in New York -- where donors and students meet in person.
Lekander says that over the past three years she has developed a close relationship with the Adelsons.
"I talk to Andy online and through e-mail, and we meet at scholarship events," Lekander says.
He "offered to help me find an internship, and is arranging for me to go up to New York and meet with people he works with," Lekander adds.
Upon receiving the scholarship as part of her financial aid package, Lekander wrote a two-page letter to thank the Adelsons. The letter moved the family to continue her scholarship until she graduates and to create an additional scholarship for Nursing students.
Lekander says she is grateful to the Adelsons, and she hopes to be able to pay the kindness forward.
"I want to continue it because someone took a chance on me," Lekander says. "I want to do that for someone else."
Wharton and Engineering junior Yizenia Mora also says she has benefited tremendously from interacting with her named scholarship donor.
While Mora receives three named scholarships, she maintains a relationship with only one of her benefactors.
As one of the Aresty Scholars, Mora has a strong relationship with Robert and Jane Aresty, who fund a scholarship for minority students.
They have offered to help Mora find a job and have helped set up a network among all the other Aresty Scholars at Penn.
"They are very involved," Mora says of the Arestys. "They are there for every dinner, they get to know every student and get to know what their plans are."
She adds, "Some people are not as concerned with having a personal, one-on-one relationship with the student," including her other donors.
The program has increased by 10 to 20 percent over the past two years, according to Hanna. Scholarships can be sponsored by families, graduated classes, alumni organizations and companies, among others.
