Alumni Success Stories: Blane Fitzgerald Stoddart
Profession:
Co-Founder and Executive DirectorEmployer:
The Partnership CDCEducation:
Martin Luther King High School, Class of 1982; The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1987, BS in Economics and MarketingHome:
West Philadelphia, PAWhat effect did White-Williams Scholars have on your life?
White-Williams Scholars has had a profoundly positive effect on my life. It amazes me that we as Americans have this theory about pulling one's self up by our bootstraps. This is a fallacy in that, if you read the biography of every great American, someone helped them along the way in achieving greatness. At some point along the way—a parent, a mentor, an angel investor, a teacher, counselor—someone has helped each of us to reach our current station in life.
White-Williams Scholars was the hand that reached out and helped me when I needed it the most and, as a young person in high school, I did not see the significance of the organization at that time. With the passing of time, the significance of White-Williams Scholars has become crystal clear in my psyche.
Why do you contribute to support current Scholars?
By contributing to this program, I can continue in my own small way the White-Williams Scholars legacy. I am helping my young sister-in-law with her college applications and it is now significantly more difficult to gain admission to college than it was in 1982. Kids today face such tremendous obstacles, including the threat of violence; an educated populace is needed to overcome the challenges faced by our youth. White-Williams Scholars promotes education and the quest to become educated, in a most fundamental way.
