Giving Now, for Later
Karen Hansen Brueck ’62 is making an impact on Hartwick students—today and tomorrow.
When making her estate plans, Karen Hansen Brueck ’62 made room for Hartwick. Specifically, she chose to fund a J Term scholarship for off campus study. She never left New York State until well after college, so she wants to help make travel possible for current students who also cannot afford it.
A career educator, Brueck is devoted to young people. She first fell in love with math in the eighth grade and made teaching it her life’s work. Math was her choice of majors in college, with a minor in Physics; she fondly recalls frequent science study partners Emory Ford ’62 and Neal Wilsey ’61 “assigning” her all the math problems because of her skill.
As it has been for many students throughout Hartwick’s history, money was tight for Brueck’s family. Her father was a brick layer, her mother a part-time school nurse, and her grandfather a chicken farmer. She couldn’t have attended Hartwick without the help of a scholarship, and that memory guides her philanthropy to this day.
Her fund for J Term study and travel was initially set up as a bequest, but Brueck recently decided not to wait. She wanted the opportunity to meet her scholarship recipients—to learn about the experiences she helped make possible and to share stories of her own travels—and so she is endowing the fund with outright gifts.
Brueck is now retired from teaching, but not from travel. She’s an avid cyclist who’s been sidelined by arthritis, but that’s not slowing her down. Next up: a river cruise in the Puget Sound with her two sisters.
She’s fond of saying “Hartwick was the best contiguous four years of my life. It was the people,” she explains. “And the fact that I knew that the next year would be as great as the last.” Brueck is helping make sure that today’s, and tomorrow’s, students can say the same.
Give the Gift of Opportunity
Whether it’s a future gift from your will, an outright gift or both, you can give Hartwick students the opportunities of a lifetime—just as Karen Hansen Brueck ’62, has done. Contact Patricia Dopazo at 607-431-4020 or dopazop@hartwick.edu to discover the giving option that is right for you.