Development News - Summer 2010 - Issue 14, pg 2 - Division of Development, Alumni and Community Engagement

Scholarship bequest will allow English majors to focus on studies

In life, words matter. That’s one of the reasons Tobye Stein, CAS ’74, and husband Neil Alpiner have made a bequest in support of scholarship funding for Oakland University English majors.

“The less students have to focus on money, the better their experience will be,” Stein said. “And if they have more assistance, they can focus more on their studies.”

The retired executive vice president and chief human resources officer for CO-OP Network and Service Centers Corporation knows from experience how difficult it can be for young people to cover the cost of higher education. As a student, she paid her own way through Oakland and nearly had to leave school a few times when finances grew tight. “I’d seen people who said, ‘I’ll just take a semester off to work and then come back,’” Stein said. “That’s actually very hard for most people to do.” With those experiences in mind, scholarships made sense when it came time to shape the bequest.

By focusing the scholarship support on English majors, Stein was able to express her support of the humanities, as well, something that developed for her early on at OU. As a freshman, she originally planned on majoring in music; next it was political science, and then history before she ultimately settled on English in the middle of her sophomore year. Her interest in such a diverse curricula paid off in the long run, she said. “As I went on in my work life, I realized that having a broad spectrum of knowledge was important. I think that when people go into a very specific major in college right away, they miss out.”

Perhaps the most valuable asset Stein gained from her OU education was an ability to write. “Knowing how to write has helped in every job I’ve ever had,” she said. She credits the high standards of the OU English department with helping her master the medium. “We had a lot of critiquing, which makes you a better writer,” she said. “It hones your skills and makes you more receptive to feedback.”

Over the course of her career, Stein mentored young employees by passing on her love of writing and helping them improve their own communication skills. This interest in working with young people motivated her to get back into the OU classrooms, where she taught courses in business and human resources.

For Stein and her husband, giving back to OU is yet another way to leave a legacy for tomorrow’s students. “We’re hoping that students who need the money and who are academically committed will benefit from this,” Stein said.

By helping students put their financial worries aside and focus on learning, there’s little doubt recipients of these future scholarships will be grateful. And thanks to their OU education, they’ll have the words to express it.