Innovations in Education

Troy, N.Y. – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has received a gift of $1 million to establish the Paula and Jeffrey R. Gural '64 Scholarship for undergraduate students in civil engineering. The endowment supports the $1.4 billion Renaissance at Rensselaer: The Campaign for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

"I applaud and am grateful to Jeff and Paula Gural for their generosity and their commitment to engineering education," said Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson. "If the United States is to maintain its standing as the global technology leader, our nation will require a significant increase in the number of young people, especially the underrepresented majority — women, minorities, and persons with disabilities — who choose to pursue careers in science, engineering, and mathematics. This new scholarship is an important vote of confidence in these leaders of tomorrow."

Through the scholarship, Jeffrey Gural said he intends to help ease the financial struggle many students face to meet college costs.

"I have been fortunate to have a successful career, and I feel it is my responsibility to give back to the university that educated me," Gural said. "I want the scholarship to support talented students from all walks of life, who will create the diversity we need on college campuses to solve the challenges facing the world.

"I made friends for life at Rensselaer, and I brought a group of my Phi Sigma Delta fraternity brothers back to visit a couple of years ago," Gural continued. "I was very impressed with the changes across the entire university and I wanted to share the experience."

At Rensselaer, approximately 90 percent of undergraduate students receive some form of financial aid. This gift adds to $70 million that has been raised through the campaign to support scholarships and fellowships for Rensselaer students.

Gural is chairman of Newmark Knight Frank (NKF), a global real estate company with headquarters in New York City. In addition to the new endowed scholarship, Gural and his wife provide support for four Rensselaer Patroon Scholars each year. They are active in numerous philanthropic and community activities that provide for the economically and socially disadvantaged, including the "I Have A Dream" Foundation that supports education for children in low-income communities.

About the Campaign

Renaissance at Rensselaer: The Campaign for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, launched in 2004, fuels the Institute's strategic Rensselaer Plan, and supports groundbreaking interdisciplinary programs which have at their core the technologies driving innovations in the 21st century: biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, and experimental media. The campaign aims to build the Institute's unrestricted endowment, and also seeks funds for endowed scholarships and fellowships, faculty positions, curriculum support, student life programs, and athletic programs and facilities. To date, the effort has raised more than $1.37 billion.

About Rensselaer

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is the nation's oldest technological university. The university offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology, architecture, management, and the humanities and social sciences. Institute programs serve undergraduates, graduate students, and working professionals around the world. Rensselaer faculty are known for pre-eminence in research conducted in a wide range of fields, with particular emphasis in biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technology, and the media arts and technology. The Institute is well known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions benefit human life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development.