Record-setting $1.6 million gift from an Arizona Cardinals player endows a UM Athletics scholarship.

Calais Campbell, A.B. ’08, former University of Miami football student-athlete, current NFL Pro Bowler with the Arizona Cardinals, and founder of the CRC Foundation, made a gift of $1.6 million to endow The Calais Campbell Football Defensive Lineman Endowed Scholarship to the University of MiamiDepartment of Athletics.

This endowment marks the largest total gift from a former student-athlete in University of Miami Athletics history, which includes the recent $1.5 million gift from former running back Ken Hunt, B.B.A. ’65. With this gift, the Athletics Department has surpassed $106 million toward the University of Miami’s fundraising campaign known as Momentum2: The Breakthrough Campaign for the University of Miami.

Click here to read the whole story.

Earlier this January, it was announced that Robert Mann, A.B. ’70, gave a $1 million gift to create the Robert A. Mann Endowed Fund for the Department of Athletics. Click here for that story.

A $2 million gift from longtime philanthropists Petra and Stephen A. Levin designates the Petra and Stephen A. Levin Endowed Chair for UHealth Sports Performance and Wellness. To read the November 2014 announcement, click here.

The gifts are part of Momentum2: The Breakthrough Campaign for the University of Miami.

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At $1 billion and rising, Momentum2’s impact is building University-wide

The Patricia Louise Frost Music Studios, the Patricia and Harold Toppel Career Center expansion, and the Dr. Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid Orbital Vision Research Center (renderings clockwise from top) are just a few of the exciting projects funded by Momentum2’s 100,000-plus generous donors.

Just over a year from its public launch, Momentum2: The Breakthrough Campaign for the University of Miami is indeed breaking through. It passed the $1 billion mark toward its $1.6 billion goal in October, with contributions reaching every corner of campus. Recent highlights include a $10 million gift to create a vision research center, a pledge to dramatically expand the Toppel Career Center, and a matching fund to give law scholars a boost.

The gift from Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid, founder and chairman of Rashid Engineering, who lost vision in one eye as a child, is the largest the nation’s top-ranked ophthalmology program has received during Momentum2. It will establish the Dr. Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid Orbital Vision Research Center in the Miller School of Medicine’s Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Vision Research Center.
The Bascom Palmer Eye Institute surgeon Al-Rashid credits for preserving the sight in his other eye, David T. Tse, M.D. ’76, professor of ophthalmology and holder of the Dr. Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid Chair in Ophthalmic Plastic, Orbital Surgery and Oncology, will be the center’s director.

The Patricia and Harold Toppel Career Center will be housed in a new building on the Gables campus that doubles its current 6,000-square-foot size, thanks to a gift from UM trustee Patricia Toppel, B.Ed. ’58, M.Ed. ’59, along with a significant Parents Council contribution. “I am honored to continue to support the important legacy Harold and I created 17 years ago,” Toppel said. “The new center will be much more integrated into the overall learning experience and help prepare our students for a globally competitive job market.”

As chair of the School of Law’s Momentum2 and Visiting committees, UM trustee Wayne Chaplin, B.B.A. ’79, J.D. ’82, launched the Chaplin Challenge. The dollar-for-dollar match on donations to new or existing Miami Law scholarships through 2016 has raised $500,000 to date, with 13 new scholarships created.

The sweet sound of student support is also in play at the Frost School of Music. Groundbreaking took place in February on the Patricia Louise Frost Music Studios, made possible by longtime UM philanthropists Patricia Louise and Phillip Frost, the latter a UM trustee. The state-of-the-art, environmentally sound complex will include 82 chamber music and teaching studios, replacing the antiquated Foster Building practice rooms, which have needed updating since the 1970s, Patricia Frost said at the event. “Well, we’re doing more than updating,” she added. “And I’m proud to have my name on your educational building.”

For more information about the campaign, visit miami.edu/momentum2.

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Young Alumni Program encourages recent grads to ‘be a force’

Ian Chambers, B.S.M.A.S. ’12, left, is among the many UM graduates of the past decade passionate about contributing to his alma mater’s new Young Alumni Program. Photos by Jenny Abreu

With the University of Miami’s newest graduates blazing a trail toward bright futures, the UM Alumni Association wants them to know it is keeping pace. In January it launched the Young Alumni Program.

“We want to create a reciprocal relationship with young alumni,” explains Kate Lake, director of Alumni Programs, Young Alumni, and Student Advancement. “We’re excited to engage this unique group in ways that both are relevant to them and position them for future alumni leadership roles.”

UM alumni of the past decade, typically ages 21 to 35, now number around 23,000 and represent a new era—all earned undergraduate degrees during President Donna E. Shalala’s tenure, which began in 2001. This year Shalala is embarking on a first-ever national tour devoted to them.

Internet-savvy sisters Adrienne, B.B.A. ’09, and Stephanie, B.B.A. ’11, Vendetti, founders of HowtoBeaRedhead.com, see value in this targeted outreach. “As students we were trained to think outside the box,” they say. “This program allows young alumni to continue innovating, networking, and building relationships together.”

One of the first Young Alumni initiatives is the GOLDstein (Graduates Of the Last Decade) Family Challenge. Sandy, B.B.A. ’81, M.B.A. ’85, and Cindy, B.S.N. ’79, Goldstein will give $25,000 to need-based scholarships if 2,013 young alumni like their son Sean Goldstein, B.B.A. ’12, make a gift to UM by May 31. Plans for a regional challenge are also under way between young alumni in Boston and Washington, D.C. And one anonymous ’Cane has pledged $20,000 to the Schools of Communication and Architecture if the number of gifts designated to those schools from their young alumni goes up 25 percent and 33 percent, respectively, over last year.

“With this challenge, young alumni have the chance to be a real force in the University’s Momentum2 capital campaign,” says Gabe Trieger, B.L.A. ’10, assistant director of Annual Giving, Young Alumni, and Student Philanthropy.

Prominent ’Canes are also taking the lead in developing benefits, services, and events for their millennial peers through the newly formed Young Alumni Leadership Council. “We look forward to bringing meaningful programs, leadership opportunities, and networking outlets to young alumni around the world,” says council member Danny Carvajal, B.B.A. ’08, a former Student Government president. “It’s so important that young alumni become the next generation of alumni leaders—supporting and preserving the future of the U.”

Ian Chambers, B.S.M.A.S. ’12, agrees: “The Young Alumni Program is allowing me to encourage my classmates to support the U, from the sports stands to the far reaches of social media.”

For more information, visit miami.edu/youngalumni.

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