If you ask associate professor emeritus James Somerville why he and his wife, Arleen, have endowed scholarships at SUNY Geneseo, he will likely quote a line from the musical film “Hello Dolly.”
“Money is like manure,” said James Somerville. “It’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around, encouraging young things to grow. That’s pretty much our philosophy.”
James was a member of Geneseo’s history department faculty for 30 years. Arleen was director of the Science and Engineering Libraries and chemistry librarian at the University of Rochester for 33 years.
The Somervilles’ philanthropic support for Geneseo started with scholarships to sophomores majoring in history or chemistry.
“History is not a STEM field; it doesn’t lead you directly into an occupation, but we wanted to encourage students to stick with studying history,” said James. “History has been an effective springboard to many other fields, and therefore, we thought a certain financial award for going through the sophomore year would motivate them to keep moving in the field of history.”
Their support for chemistry students was connected to Arleen’s work at the University of Rochester.
“Well, I got to know two of the Geneseo chemistry faculty who spent time at the University of Rochester,” said Arleen. “I got to know them quite well, and they actually became personal friends, and they talked in very positive terms about the quality of the students and the programs. So I decided, well, let’s do one for chemistry, just like Jim did one for history.”
“Well, I got to know two of the Geneseo chemistry faculty who spent time at the University of Rochester,” said Arleen. “I got to know them quite well, and they actually became personal friends, and they talked in very positive terms about the quality of the students and the programs. So I decided, well, let’s do one for chemistry, just like Jim did one for history.”
“First-generation students are the students who often come from families with more modest incomes,” said Arleen, who was the first in her family to attend college. “Without knowing someone who has been at college and can be a mentor for them, it becomes a bit more challenging for first-generation students to even decide to apply to college and then try to surmount the paperwork.”
“There are many students out there who deserve support and help, yet they or their families don’t have the wherewithal to pay for a college education,” said James. “We were not in a position to provide a full scholarship for the student in terms of his or her four years at the College, but we did think we could provide a certain amount of money for that chosen student each year during their four-year tenure.”
The Somervilles strongly believe in forging and maintaining a personal connection with the students they help through their scholarship support.
“We believe that it’s very, very valuable for a donor to initiate and retain contact with the scholarship recipient because this is a benefit both for the donor, who gets to know the student well, and gets to know something about what he or she is experiencing at the College,” James said. “The student gets to know what the outside world is like and what we’ve experienced. It is gratifying to see how students we’ve supported have grown academically and personally during their years at Geneseo.”
