When Loretta Seppanen ’68 was a student at UMN Morris, she worked; attended lectures, plays, concerts, international film showings; and participated in various clubs, in addition to attending class and studying. Because of this, she says she learned how to effectively manage time between her coursework, extracurricular activities, and a work-study job. She thinks back to the experience almost as a gift. “I still appreciate having developed the habit of learning in all of these venues,” says Seppanen.
In appreciation of what that “gift” meant to her, she wanted to give back to her alma mater. “For me, UMN Morris is one of the three organizations I chose for our planned giving because of the benefits I gained from my four years [there],” says Seppanen. “I also chose [to give to] UMN Morris because I appreciate the unique work that Morris is engaged in today offering a liberal arts education that can include an Indigenous focus for a significant number of Native American students.”
Seppanen and her husband opted to support UMN Morris through planned giving to the Morris Scholarship Fund. She recalls receiving a scholarship each year during her time at UMN Morris and felt that was an area where she could give support at more of a significant level. “Planned giving means we can keep giving to a diverse set of organizations annually and use our wills to designate larger gifts, after our deaths, to the select organizations that hold special significance to each of us, like UMN Morris.”
Seppanen knows that the cost of college, even when adjusted for inflation, is much higher today than it was more than 50 years ago, and that scholarships may only help with a small portion of a student’s total cost of college, but she hopes that this type of funding gives today’s students the opportunity to sample more of the unique UMN Morris experiences than they would be able to without the scholarship funding.