$2.5 Million Schoenbaum Gift Supports Human Ecology's New Early Childhood Development Center
The Ohio State University College of Human Ecology has announced that Betty Schoenbaum of Charleston, West Va., and Sarasota, Fla., a longtime supporter and friend of the university, has pledged $2.5 million to create an early childhood development center in the Weinland Park neighborhood just east of campus. It is the lead gift in a new effort to relocate the A. Sophie Rogers Early Childhood Laboratory School from Campbell Hall on campus to a community setting. Serving 140 infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their families-compared to the current 30 children and families served-the new center will be a significantly larger facility featuring increased space for research and training of students and professionals.
“I've read that quality care during the first four years of children's lives is critical to their lifelong development,”Mrs. Schoenbaum said. “This means that for children whose families lack advantages, high-quality early childhood education is critical to their getting a good start in life. For years, I dreamed of starting the ideal center, offering the finest early care and education to young children and their families who couldn't otherwise afford it. I'm thrilled that my dream will now come true.”
David W. Andrews, dean of the College of Human Ecology, says that one goal of the new center is to share the college's resources and expertise in early childhood development and education with the neighborhood east of High Street, an area plagued by poverty, unemployment, low educational attainment, and high transience. “The center will have a holistic focus on early childhood development that includes literacy and school readiness,” he said. “It will also serve as a focal point for the early childhood component of the university's P-12 Initiative.” At the same time, he points out that children benefit most from programs in which participants come from a mix of backgrounds. “The new center will serve children from all walks of life, including different socioeconomic groups,” he said.
The center will serve the entire Weinland Park community by:
* Providing the highest quality care and education possible to the children enrolled.
* Offering training and other services to parents to aid children.
* Incorporating the college's emerging Jumpstart program, which fosters mentoring relationships between at-risk young children and Ohio State work-study students.
It will strengthen the College of Human Ecology's program in early childhood care and education by:
* Serving as a national model program in early care and education.
* Focusing interdisciplinary efforts on early childhood health, education, and literacy across the Ohio State campus.
* Fostering innovative research, enabling current faculty researchers-as well as those whose recruitment will be facilitated by the center-to provide national leadership in establishing “best practices” in early care and education.
* Providing a state-of-the-art training center for the 400+ undergraduate students majoring in early care and education.
* Functioning as a public resource by offering outreach and community involvement programs for citizens and other professionals.
The project's total private fund-raising goal is $11 million, $5 million of which will support construction of the new building. The remainder will help to make the program affordable for families and will also support endowed professorships.
“Mrs. Schoenbaum's generous gift is by far the largest single donation made to the college since its founding in 1896,” Dean Andrews said. “We are grateful for her desire to create a program that will provide training and new knowledge to improve the lives of children worldwide.”
An alumna of Ohio State's College of Commerce (now the Max M. Fisher College of Business), Betty Schoenbaum is president and trustee of the Schoenbaum Family Foundation, Inc., which grants funds to numerous charitable and civic organizations, primarily in West Virginia. A strong supporter of community and educational causes worldwide, she serves on the board of a number of civic and community organizations. At Ohio State, she serves as a director of The Ohio State University Foundation. Betty and her late husband, Alex-a three-time letter winner and All-American football player at Ohio State who graduated in 1939 with a B.S. in business administration, founded Shoney's restaurants, and later served as a Foundation Board director, on the Fisher College of Business Campaign Committee, and as chair of the Campaign for Athletics from 1985-90-have been among Ohio State's most giving and dedicated supporters. The Schoenbaum Hall of Champions in the Woody Hayes Athletic Facility recognizes their gifts to the Department of Athletics, which include endowed scholarships. Betty has also provided generous support to the Fisher College of Business, where she established endowed scholarships and helped to fund Schoenbaum Hall, the college's undergraduate building. She has established an endowed scholarship for students in the College of Education and is a supporter and founding member of the committee to create Ohio State's Critical Difference for Women Program.
In recognition of their extraordinary service to Ohio State, Betty and Alex were joint recipients of the university's Distinguished Service Award in 1990. In addition, Betty received an honorary doctorate degree in humanities in May 1999 from the University of Charleston (West Virginia) and an Honorary Doctor of Business degree from Ohio State in March 2001. Her most recent gift is part of Ohio State's ongoing fund-raising efforts in support of the Academic Plan.
