What goes around comes around. That may seem like an old saw, but for two lucky Peabody students, it is anything but trite. Katie White, a rising senior, and Kathleen Russell, a May graduate, are recipients of the Rogers Family Scholarship, established in 2006 as a way for the Rogers family to give back to the university by providing awards based on academic merit to students enrolled in Peabody College.
The Rogers family, of Towson, Md., was unfamiliar with Peabody College until their daughter, Hilary, BS’08, began looking at colleges. “I loved Vanderbilt from the moment I first stepped on campus,” Hilary recalls. “I made sure to research every aspect of the school when I decided to apply and that’s when I discovered HOD at Peabody. I knew this was where I wanted to be and what I wanted to pursue in college.” Hilary’s brother, Peter, BS’10, followed his sister’s lead. Hilary now works as an assistant talent manager at Untitled Entertainment in New York. Peter is a vice president at a software company in Baltimore. Their human and organizational development majors have been extremely helpful to both. Their younger sister, Sydney, is a rising junior at NYU.
Parents Brian and Mary Jo made the scholarships available for future Peabodians. Brian is chairman of T. Rowe Price Group, and Mary Jo is actively involved with Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore. Brian attended Harvard College and Harvard Business School, while Mary Jo matriculated at Emmanuel College in Boston. They have made education a priority in their philanthropic activities.
“Financial aid helped both Brian and me attend college,” Mary Jo says, “so we understand its importance. Hilary and Peter had tremendous experiences at Vanderbilt and were fortunate that they didn’t have to incur large debts to finance their time there. We wanted to do something to show our appreciation to the university by helping future students have that same experience.
“If you’re appreciative of the role Vanderbilt has played in your child’s life and you have the inclinations and wherewithal to ‘pay it forward,’” Mary Jo says, “you’ll feel great if you establish one.”
—Nelson Bryan