Vibrant Nation

Our interview with Elin

1. When and how did you begin to devote yourself more to giving back?
   
   My father ran a fruit and vegetable store during the Depression. We lived hand-to-mouth. I was smart and creative and always did well in school, but there was never any thought of me, a girl, going to college. I have an older sister who didn't even graduate from high school; she quit school to take care of me. This was the 1930s and 40s - a very different culture.
   
   Instead of going to college, I became an actor and appeared in several movies and plays. I wrote a newspaper column and became an advertising copywriter. I lived in Mexico. I eventually returned to the U.S., met my husband in New York, and moved with him to Philadelphia. I was 35.
   
   I started working at the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as a volunteer guide. It was a great way to learn the material. After a while I thought it would be interesting to sit in on a few archaeology and anthropology courses. Then my husband said, "Why don't you take the courses for credit?" So, at 46, I went back to school (part-time, since I continued to work at the museum) and just never stopped. I received my BA in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude. I received my master's in 1989 and my Ph.D. in anthropology with a concentration in Mayan archaeology in 1998. I was 68.
   
   While I was getting my BA, I met a lot of women who had great difficulty meeting the financial requirements. That made a big impression on me. So, when my husband and I were working on our wills, I decided to create a scholarship - but rather than wait until I was dead, I thought it would be much more gratifying to do it now. I took $1000 of seed money, sent out letters, and corralled my friends into being on my board of advisers.
   
   Bread Upon the Waters was started through the nontraditional arm of Penn (then the College of General Studies, now named the College of Liberal and Professional Studies) in the fall of 1986. We had our first student in January 1987. Bread is open to women over 30 who can only attend Penn on a part time basis (because life has a habit of getting in the way) and whose intellectual abilities far exceed their financial ones. To date, thanks to the incredible support of the university, Bread board members and a broad support group, our fundraising efforts have resulted in 73 graduates, half of them with honors, with many going on to graduate school. Each year we support 25 students at Penn.


2. What do you love most about the cause you support?
   
   The incredible women it's been my privilege to get to know. These students are truly amazing. Many of them are single mothers, others are helping to support their families. All of them are bright, committed, eager, intellectually open, and fiercely dedicated to making the most of this education opportunity that they had thought beyond their reach.
   
   In my experience, older students have an important advantage in the classroom. Most professors love us because in addition to our intelligence and ability to synthesize information, we bring incredible life experiences to the classroom. We may not be able to memorize things as easily, but we know where to go to find information and we know how it all fits together. We have seen enough, read enough, and experienced enough so that what we're studying makes a lot more sense in the context of our own lives and the world around us.
   
   Going to school as an older student is a wonderful opportunity because it's invigorating and rejuvenating. It makes me so hopeful for the future to be surrounded by bright young people who want to change the world for the better.


3. What do you find most difficult about your work, and how do you overcome it?
   
   We have a great fundraiser, Laura Weber, at the university. But of course fundraising is always a challenge. We've done mailings, held fundraising events, and crossed our fingers. The support we get is well worth the worry.
   
   We find that people really respond to the idea behind the scholarship. Men as well as women recognize the inequity in the traditional role of women. Even today, a glass ceiling exists in the workplace. A college degree has become mandatory for most jobs, so women without one are at a serious disadvantage. Scholarships like Bread Upon the Waters are one way to address this inequity.


4. What can others do to support your cause?
   
   That's simple. Give money. We use every penny for the scholars, whether $5 or $50,000 and anything in between. Checks should be made out to "Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania," with "Bread Upon the Waters Scholarship Fund" on the memo line, and mailed to: University of Pennsylvania, attn: Laura Weber, 3615 Market Street, Philadelphia PA 19104. People who are able and wish to create a term or endowed scholarship should contact Laura Weber at that address, or call her at 215-898-5262.
   
   To learn more about Bread Upon the Waters Scholarship Fund, please visit www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/resources/scholarships or email lps@sas.upenn.edu.