Giving Day offers way for alumni, supporters to impact CALES

As the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences and the University of Arizona get ready to celebrate Giving Day on February 14, they will count on alumni and other supporters to lead the way.

That’s where Fran Colwell and his wife, Sandy Koizumi, come in.

The couple from Placentia, California, have supported many students in the CALES School of Natural Resources and the Environment with scholarships over the years, have shared their giving stories, and have inspired others to join them.

Now, for Giving Day, they have decided to match all gifts up to $3,000 that fund the Director’s Award in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE). It’s an endowed fund they created in 2021 to help support the school’s students in perpetuity.

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For Colwell, the philanthropy comes naturally, stemming from his long ties to CALES.  In 1977, he became one of the first students to graduate with his Bachelor of Science in CALES’ new Forest Watershed Management Program in SNRE. He went on to a decades-long career in the U.S. Forest Service. Koizumi shares her husband’s enthusiasm for outdoor adventures, conservation, and giving back. While she did not attend the University of Arizona, she considers herself a full-fledged member of the CALES family.

They maintain close contact with the school and its interim director, Willem van Leeuwen.

“As initial contributors to the SNRE Director’s Award, Sandy and I wanted to honor Wim’s leadership of the school’s natural resource management program and of course support student success by recognizing the achievement of outstanding scholars,” Colwell said.

The Director’s Award fund is just one of the examples of how contributions from alumni and others support CALES and its students, said Shane Burgess, University of Arizona Vice President for the Division of Agriculture, Life and Veterinary Sciences, and Cooperative Extension and Charles-Sander Dean of the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences.

The first-ever University of Arizona Giving Day is one more way to emphasize that impact.

“Student success is the goal in CALES,” Burgess said. “Donors supercharge that success. Every gift, of every size, makes a tangible and specific difference for our students; now more than ever.”

In CALES, Giving Day contributions will also go toward such things as:

• Helping provide students with access to mental health services through CALES Life Management Counseling.
• Giving free assistance to students through the CALES Learning Lab: Powered by the SALT Center, which helps them overcome learning challenges.

Students such as Lea Schram von Haupt have experienced the support first-hand. She is the first winner of the Director’s Award in SNRE.

Schram von Haupt is a returned Peace Corps volunteer and graduate student whose goal is to become an environmental planner for a federal agency like the U.S. Forest Service. The extra financial support came when she was taking four hands-on courses in remote sensing, water policy, law, and conflict management in the public sector.

“I am so thankful and honored to be the first recipient of the Director’s Award,” Schram von Haupt said. “This award will go a long way toward supporting my educational career.”