Faces of the Endowment

Endowment is the lifeblood of any institution of higher education. Endowment provides security but, more importantly, the opportunity to pursue dreams. Here are just a few faces of Kenyon's endowment

Whitney Bratton
Kenyon's endowment makes beautiful music, literally. Violinist Whitney Bratton '06 was one of a select group of students chosen to perform in the Angela Waite Recital Series. The endowed series was created by emeritus trustee Charles P. Waite as anniversary gift for his wife, a violinist and longtime supporter of the arts.

Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky
Shakespeare scholar and fiction writer Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky completed his newest novel, The Snake Priest (about Victorian explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton), with support from the inaugural Dr. Newton Chun Award. The endowed award, established by technology entrepreneur Jon Chun in honor of his father, funds faculty research and artistic projects.

Travis Brennion
"Without scholarship aid, attending Kenyon would not have been a possibility," says Travis Brennion '06, who benefited from both the David W. Horvitz and the Eppa Rixey III Memorial endowed scholarship funds. A member of Kenyon's championship swimming team, Brennion graduated with high honors in economics and has worked as a marketing research analyst, with plans to attend graduate school.

Balinda Craig-Quijada and Julie Brodie
Dance professors Balinda Craig-Quijada (left) and Julie Brodie performed in The Changing Room, a multi-faceted collaborative piece that started with a photographic installation by Marcella Hackbardt of the art faculty. The work ultimately included a large Kenyon cast of students and staff-and it came to life in both on- and off-campus venues, thanks to the endowed Kenyon Campus Community Development Fund, created by Richard Spinner '63.

Justine Li
High-school students can see their poetry published in the Kenyon Review and win scholarships to the Review's Young Writers summer workshop, thanks to a gift to the Review's endowment from Michael Stone in honor of his wife, Patricia Grodd, a Review trustee. In 2006, Justine Li of Laguna Niguel, Calfornia, won the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers. Here is the winning poem.

"El Norte"

I.
Here, the skyline tilts,
swerves into view
then disappears between the hills
behind the walls
darkened with hieroglyphics scrawled by
young boys who mark the borders
of their public territories: This is mine.
And this is how the world chooses to divide itself,
drawing lines across maps,
assigning us to designated areas
to take the blame
to anywhere else but here.

II.
We are often photographed,
but never captured, and we
go to where one suffering
disguises itself as another; but
our palms are like maps,
decorated with lines that tell
stories and show
us where to run
to escape
homes that don't exist,
and people asking us
telling us
where we belong.