A former teacher and alumna left UW-Stevens Point the largest gift in the university’s 125-year history — $4.3 million to the UWSP Foundation for the School of Education.
The money comes from the estate of Dorothea Harju and will create the Harju Center for Equity in Education, according to a press release. The center’s aim is to address educational inequities in Wisconsin, specifically through supporting diverse and first-generation elementary education teachers.
The gift — announced by the university Wednesday — initially came as a surprise, as Harju didn’t share her plans with university officials to give the money to UW-Stevens Point after her death, WSAU News reported.
“The reaction was, ‘Oh my,’" UW-Stevens Point Chancellor Bernie Patterson said. "Look at what we can do for teachers, for rural education, for the citizens of Wisconsin. This is an amazing gift from an amazing woman."
The Harju Center for Equity in Education also plans to help the university serve underrepresented student populations in metropolitan areas and add more teachers to rural areas of Wisconsin.
“Our hope is to recruit students from rural communities who will return to those areas to teach after they graduate from UW-Stevens Point,” UW-Stevens Point School of Education Chair Lynda Fernholz said in the press release.
The new center plans to do this through creating literacy programs for the children of central Wisconsin, offering education students at the university hands-on experience. The Harju Center will also host summer camps for high school students looking to go into education and provide grants for K-12 teachers and UW-Stevens Point faculty, as well as begin new scholarship and mentoring programs.
Harju previously established a scholarship in her name at UW-Stevens Point for students pursuing degrees in elementary education, which has benefitted 22 students since 1999, the Stevens Point Journal reported.
Harju herself earned her bachelor’s degree in education in 1943 and her master’s degree in 1966, both from UW-Stevens Point, according to the press release. She taught in a variety of Wisconsin schools and worked as a reading specialist in the Port Edwards School District for a quarter-century before retiring in 1977.
