Roger Williams University Receives $500,000 Gift from Alan Shawn Feinstein

Rhode Island philanthropist will provide $50,000 per year for 10 years to help fund scholarships for Feinstein Junior Scholars attending RWU

Public Affairs Staff
Students work on an experiment inside the chemistry lab.
Since 2006, the Feinstein Leadership Scholarship Fund has supported rising young scholars with scholarships to attend Roger Williams University, including 11 students enrolled this academic year. The recent gift of $50,000 per year for the next decade will help send dozens more elementary and middle school students, upon graduation from high school, to RWU as Feinstein Junior Scholars. Image Credit: Joe Gaylor

BRISTOL, R.I. ­­– Rhode Island philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein is providing $500,000 to help fund scholarships for Feinstein Junior Scholars attending Roger Williams University.

While in elementary or middle school, Feinstein Junior Scholars pledge to do good deeds. And now, the Feinstein Foundation is providing $50,000 per year for 10 successive years to help send those students to RWU with Feinstein Leadership Scholarships once they graduate high school.

This latest gift builds on Feinstein’s substantial contributions to RWU, which is one of only two universities in Rhode Island with a college that bears his name (the Feinstein College of Arts and Sciences). In 2006, he made a gift to the Feinstein Leadership Scholarship Fund, and that fund is now supporting 11 students during this 2016-2017 academic year.

“Roger Williams University has long been in our program to grant scholarships to worthy youngsters,” Feinstein said. “We have some 60,000 junior scholarships each year for youngsters who have pledged to do good deeds for others, and I want to be able to give them as many college scholarship opportunities as possible.”

RWU President Donald J. Farish said, “Alan Shawn Feinstein has supported Roger Williams University students who are engaged in community service projects for more than 20 years. As our commitment to serving the public has grown so, too, has Mr. Feinstein’s support. We are honored to have been deemed worthy by him and are thrilled that we will now be in a position to offer scholarship support to the next generation of Feinstein Junior Scholars.”

Farish said, “This is a particularly welcome gift to our university at this moment because we are deeply invested in the notion of community service performed by our students and have launched a campaign to raise $3 million to support the ‘civic scholars’ whose work combines academic scholarship with civic engagement. Feinstein Scholars exemplify everything we value about our students and our educational model.”

In addition to the Leadership Scholarship Fund, Feinstein has made other significant contributions to RWU, including the Feinstein Enriching America Program Fund in 1997, the Feinstein Institute of Legal Services Fund in 1996, and the Feinstein Center for Pro Bono & Experiential Education.

Looking ahead, RWU will reach out to the 163 elementary and middle schools that have a relationship with the Feinstein Foundation, informing them of the new Feinstein Leadership Scholarships.

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