UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — After promising her parents and brother that they would be remembered, Maureen Bail set out to find a gift that would last in perpetuity. One day while working in her garden, she said, the path forward presented itself: a scholarship for undergraduate students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
Through a $50,000 gift and the support of her extended family, including her nephew, Joe Walker, Bail has created the Helen M., Ignatius J., and Joseph A. Bail Scholarship in Forest Ecosystem Management. Preference will be given to full-time undergraduate students in their fifth semester or higher majoring in forest ecosystem management and who have maintained a balance of academic success and activities demonstrating a passion for stewardship of forestlands and natural habitats.
“This scholarship will help students achieve their academic goals and support their potential to pursue a career in forest ecosystem management,” said Margot Wilkinson Kaye, interim head of the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management. “Many of our students share the same love of nature expressed by the Bail family, and this new scholarship directly supports students’ academic path to pursue their passions.”
Bail, a graduate of Muhlenberg College, said creating a scholarship at Penn State felt right due to her family’s multiple connections to the University. Bail’s father attended Penn State prior to his career with Scott Paper Company, and her brother had been a student at Penn State Brandywine, where he had been pursuing his dream of becoming a forester before he passed away unexpectedly. In addition, the family regularly utilized information shared by Penn State Extension, and Bail had taken continuing education courses during her professional career.
“It just seemed right to create a scholarship in the college,” Bail said. “I think it reflects my parents and brother’s love of nature and our family’s belief in education.”
Walker agreed, adding, “It’s been a special experience sharing in the creation of this with my aunt. I feel like it embodies their interests and the things they loved, which became things I also love and care about. I also think it reflects the values they taught us.”
Bail and Walker said they understand how challenging paying for school can be and hope that this scholarship lessens the burden recipients feel and encourages them to keep pursuing their dreams.
“We look at this as if we’re planting seeds,” Bail said. “We hope this scholarships plants seeds of hope that help grow a dream, be it large or small. Like a garden, our dreams need to be fed with hard work and perseverance. We hope the recipients will work hard and keep going after their dream, growing these seeds, and find happiness and joy in both life and nature, just like my parents and brother did.”
Bail and Walker both said they believe it is important to help others where and when you can.
“I feel like I’ve been incredibly lucky and have benefited from the generosity of many people and organizations through the years, including teachers who cared and invested time in me, the sacrifices of prior generations, and the scholarships I received in high school,” Walker said. “There’s a responsibility to share what we have with others. No one’s success is achieved in a vacuum. Giving the gift of education and supporting young people are some of the most wonderful ways to give back, and one of the most important things you can do is leave the next generation better off. I really do think about it as planting a seed, watching it grow and seeing what it becomes.”
Gifts like this advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.