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Dr. Judith Clark's Estate Gift to Ensure Her Future Support for Students
Professor Emerita Dr. Judith Pettersen Clark, former program chair of English and Creative Writing, was the first woman to achieve the rank of full professor at Stephens College. Now retired after 45 years (plus three additional part-time years) of teaching English and Women's Studies, she continues to serve as an advisor to Stephens' Alpha Epsilon Eta chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, International English Honor Society - a role she treasures because of the professional growth opportunities it provides for the students and the lasting connections she makes with them along their educational journey.
To ensure the continuation of her support for students, Dr. Clark has included Stephens in her estate plan by designating the English, Creative Writing, and Women's Studies programs as primary beneficiaries of her living trust - including cash, real estate, and personal effects.
Dr. Clark's gift will create an endowment with perpetual distributions funding student travel and participation in regional and national conventions as well as funding for the Writers on the Edge speakers series. Dr. Clark is a proponent of immersive learning opportunities and networking connections for students with professional writers and lecturers, and her gift creates funding for this and other Sigma Tau Delta chapter and English/Creative Writing activities.
In all her years at Stephens, Dr. Clark says she has seen welcome support for Harbinger literary magazine, but she has not seen a transformational gift designated for the English/Creative Writing program - and she knows that her gift will make a difference and ideally inspire more support for the program.
Dr. Clark was inspired to make her gift because of Stephens' steadfast commitment to women's education. "There is still an important role for women's colleges," she says. "They offer a kind of nurturing, growth-oriented education that is not duplicated at a coed institution." She also credits the deep collegiality she shared with fellow faculty and the curiosity, aspirations, and values of the students as inspirations for her gift.
Dr. Clark encourages others to consider the legacies they could leave to support future Stephens students and how their own philanthropic gifts can make a splash rather than a ripple. |
