When Deborah Fish Ragin, professor emerita of Psychology, retired from Montclair, she had led a distinguished 17-year career of outstanding teaching, research and service at Montclair State University. She had also witnessed students’ struggles, becoming attuned to the obstacles many students faced and serving as a bridge between students’ needs and campus resources.
“A student told me the reason he was having difficulty concentrating was because he was hungry,” she recalls. “That was my clarion wake-up call. For many students, the struggle is real, whether it’s having enough to eat or having a place to live. For students who grew up in foster care, the obstacles are especially challenging.”
She decided to create a legacy of impact, setting up a generous grant from her and her husband’s donor advised fund to establish the John A. and Juanita M. Fish Red Hawk Fellows Endowed Fund.
Her philanthropy provides critical services for full-time students designated as Red Hawk Fellows, a support program at Montclair State University to improve the graduation rates for students who grew up in foster care and other undergraduates who are homeless, legally separated from parents or independent.
The gift reflects Ragin’s mission to help struggling students as a personal tribute to her late father, John Fish, who was in foster care twice in his childhood.
“My father was firmly committed to education — the great equalizer, according to Horace Mann — and instilled that within his four children,” she says. “This gift is my way of paying it forward for kids who, like my dad, face unique hardships that the average student does not encounter.”
Ragin’s gift is designed to help Red Hawk Fellows successfully graduate by supporting tuition and fees, academic services, summer housing and stipends, combined with dedicated
staff support.
“By making a gift now through our donor advised fund, I get the chance to meet some of the recipients of the scholarship, hearing and seeing firsthand, how they have benefited from the John A. and Juanita M. Fish Red Hawk Fellows Fund,” says Ragin. “This gift is an investment in their future success.”
Leave a legacy that changes lives with a gift from a donor advised fund and in your estate plan. To learn more, contact Ely F. Santoni, CFRE at 973-655-3695.