Eastern Mennonite University

Winter 2006-07

a Letter from Kathryn Suyes ’96
Financial Aid Gets Boost From Sale of House

KathrynDear Mr. Helmuth (EMU executive director of development):

Please allow me to refresh your memory…

I am a 1996 graduate of EMU’s nursing department. I have worked as a public health nurse at the Rockingham-Harrisonburg health department for about eight years. Recently I decided to pursue a master’s in public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I must say I owe a debt of gratitude to the faculty of EMU’s nursing department for giving me a high-quality education, with a focus on community health. This has steered my career along its current path. I also had the extreme good fortune to accompany (nursing professor) Ann Hershberger (’76) and her family on a cross-cultural to Central America in the fall of 1995.

You cannot imagine how fortunate that choice of cross-cultural has been for me. In my work at the health department, the majority of my patients were Spanish-speaking women and children who had recently arrived in Harrisonburg from Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador.

My having lived in their countries of origin allowed me to understand their situation and their needs here in Harrisonburg in a way that I never would have comprehended otherwise. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you EMU for requiring me to go on a cross-cultural!

Several weeks ago, I was in a local meeting where an educator from the high school was lamenting how difficult it is for local children of these first-generation immigrants to be able to afford college. She explained that a group was working with the local universities, including EMU, but that more had to be done, and more money was needed, in order to send to school everyone who has a desire for a college education.

Kathryn Suyes’ gift to EMU of 10 percent of the profit from the sale of her home amounted to the approximate dollars per student each year that EMU puts into grant assistance. In 2006-07 EMU spent $6 million in financial assistance. The University Fund is a major source of funding for financial aid and relies on donations from Suyes and other devoted contributors. The amount of money spent on financial aid this year at EMU is the highest ever. Twelve of this year’s financial aid recipients are children of Harrisonburg’s Spanishspeaking community, just as Suyes hoped they would be. (Kathryn, your plan is working!)

At the time that I was attending this meeting, I was also in the process of selling my house and quitting my job and looking for a new residence in North Carolina. The Lord has blessed me in that I was able to sell the house for more than what I paid for it eight years ago. Anxious to give back to the school that has served me so well, and seeing the need for other Harrisonburg residents to obtain the same high-quality education I had received, I gave you a call.

I remember you commenting on how generous you thought my offer was to give 10% of the profit from my house to the University Fund. Please allow me to disagree! It is my duty, as well as an honor, to be in a situation where I am. I consider the first year or two I was out of college, with bills and student loans to pay, and how bad I felt for not tithing 10% back then! So I would like to take this opportunity to make up for what I could not do earlier. I also want to add that when you speak to others who don’t think they can afford to tithe, tell them there are so many ways to give – not just 10% of your salary, but 10% of your house, or even your free time. If it is in giving that we receive, then what joy is mine today!

Sincerely,
Kathryn Suyes

How to give to EMU:
http://www.emu.edu/giving/donate

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