The University of Rochester has established a scholarship fund, the beneficiaries of which will be called the Alan and Jane Handler Scholars, with a $500,000 grant from the Handler Charitable Trust. Alan and Jane Handler Scholars will be undergraduates at the University of Rochester who will be selected on the basis of outstanding scholarship potential, financial need because of underprivileged backgrounds, and outstanding potential to be future leaders. Each selected student will receive a scholarship that will cover all University expenses including tuition and fees, room, board, and books. The scholarship program will support undergraduates in both the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering and the Eastman School of Music.
The grant was made at the recommendation of Martha and Richard Handler, who have recommended that the Handler family or Handler family charitable trusts make a grant of $5 million to be paid over ten years in the form of ten $500,000 annual payments. Richard Handler is a class of '83 graduate, Chairman and CEO of Jefferies & Company, and a University trustee. The scholarship honors his parents.
"My mother and father worked extremely hard to allow me to reap the benefits of a well-rounded education from the University of Rochester," Richard Handler said. "Because of both of them, today my family is in the position to be able to extend the privilege of this wonderful education to future generations of students who have the ability and desire, but perhaps not the means, to attend the University of Rochester. It means a great deal for my family to be able to honor my parents while they are both healthy and active so they can enjoy seeing the next stage of their legacy at this great institution."
"We are profoundly grateful to Martha and Rich Handler for their generosity in establishing this extraordinary new scholarship in honor of Rich's parents," said President Joel Seligman. "It will make possible a University of Rochester education for students of great promise who otherwise might have no chance for a university education at all."
The Handlers envision that the Handler family or Handler family charitable trusts will make two $250,000 payments each year, one to fund Alan and Jane Handler Scholars in the following year and the other to create an endowment fund for the scholarships. At the end of ten years, the accumulated grants for endowment and related investment growth will become endowment principal, the income from which will be used for the Alan and Jane Handler Scholars program.