July 2007
2006 Jablin fellow Guy
Peterson with Adrienne Capps,
founder of the Jablin Research Fellowship
Adrienne Capps, ’98, is not afraid to ask for money,
nor is she afraid to give it. She has spent her post-Jepson career
working in nonprofit fund-raising, most recently as the director of
development for the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences at Pace
University in New York City.
Capps began her association with the Richmond, Va.,
nonprofit sector when she took Service Learning, a Jepson course which
required her to volunteer at an area nonprofit organization. She chose
the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond, an organization dedicated
to enriching and enhancing the lives of disadvantaged youth through
quality programs and services.
After graduating in 1998 with a double major in
leadership studies and business, Capps landed a job with the Boys and
Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond as a development assistant responsible
for event, annual fund and capital campaign fund-raising. She loved
the work from the start.
A certified fund-raising executive (CFRE), Capps has
worked for a number of nonprofits since her first job with the Boys
and Girls Clubs. In particular, she recalled how her career evolved
when she moved from Richmond to New York City in July 2002. She
accepted a position as the associate director of development for the
New York University Child Study Center, a research center dedicated to
increasing awareness, prevention, identification and treatment of
child and adolescent psychiatric disorders.
“This job served as my introduction to philanthropy
in New York,” Capps said. “The center’s board comprised very wealthy,
high-power people, the New York elite. Board members would make
seven-figure donations.
“Those types of people expect perfection because they
are giving so much money. In Richmond I was excited to get a $500
check. In New York people would routinely write $50,000 checks.”
When the center’s director
left to take another job only five months after Capps started working
there, Capps stepped into the position of acting director of
development. She served for almost a year in this role, which she
described as a tremendous learning experience, but very stressful due
to the constant demands and long work hours that included nights and
weekends.
Her job at the Child Study Center prepared her well
for working in fund-raising in New York City, Capps said, and the
connections she made there proved beneficial. For example, her former
supervisor at the Child Study Center was working as the assistant vice
president of philanthropy at Pace University when he called Capps in
summer 2004 and asked her to come to work for him. She accepted.
Capps continued to grow professionally in her role as
director of development for Pace University’s Dyson College of Arts
and Sciences. She will be leaving her job at Pace in August to move to
Davis, Calif., with her longtime boyfriend, who will be pursuing a
Ph.D. in physics at the University of California, Davis.
When asked about the challenges of fund-raising,
Capps said she has never hesitated to ask people for monetary
contributions because she has always believed in, and been committed
to, the missions of the organizations for which she was soliciting
funds.
Likewise, she didn’t hesitate to make a generous contribution
of her own to the Jepson School when circumstances compelled her to
action. Capps knew she had to do something when she learned
about the Oct. 30, 2004, death of her favorite Jepson professor,
Fredric Jablin.
“Leadership studies left the biggest impression on
me,” Capps said about her undergraduate experience. “Dr. Jablin was
such a big part of my leadership experience. I had the most classes
with him, including Foundations of Leadership.
“Although he was very hard, his style of teaching
challenged me in a way that motivated me. Dr. Jablin taught me how to
think, how to analyze. It’s a skill that has served me well in my
career and as a productive member of society.
“I was afraid his memory would fade away. It became
important for me to create a legacy for current students to remember
him by.”
And so Capps created the
Jablin Research Fellowship to honor the memory of the man who
taught courses in organizational communications and research
methodology to scores of Jepson students from 1994-2004. In 2006 the
fellowship began awarding $2,000 annually to one Jepson student to
conduct a research project during the summer.
Guy Peterson, ’07, the first Jablin fellow,
researched environmental policy with a focus on renewable energy
sources as an intern for U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., on Capitol
Hill during summer 2006. “My internship was absolutely incredible,”
Peterson said, “and I was flattered and proud to represent both
Adrienne and Dr. Jablin through this research grant.”
This summer Garrett Schlein, ’09, the second Jablin
fellow, is pursuing a research project titled “Individual and
Collective Environmentalism: An Application to Watershed Conservation”
under the guidance of faculty member
Don Forsyth. Schlein seeks to determine if residents who are more
engaged in the civic life of their community are more likely to be
concerned with protecting and enhancing the physical condition of
their community’s watershed.
2007
Jablin fellow Garrett Schlein is researching the connection
between civic engagement and the health of the community watershed.
“We have a definitive trend regarding social
orientation and proactive environmental activity,” he reported
on July 13 after analyzing the data he gleaned from almost 60 surveys
he collected earlier in the summer. He plans to spend the remainder of
the summer conducting a literature review of research relating to this
topic, with a final goal of writing a scientific paper for
publication.
Capps is excited about the research the Jablin
fellows have been doing and, if possible, would like to extend the
fellowship beyond the five-year commitment she originally made. “My
goal would be to make the Jablin Research Fellowship an endowed fund,
something permanent, maybe for multiple students,” she said.
“There are not a lot of opportunities in the arts and
humanities for undergraduate research. [Establishing] this fellowship
in honor of Dr. Jablin was something I could do for students that
would be meaningful.”
With nine years of experience in fund-raising and
development, much of it in higher education, Capps knows better than
most the impact such a fellowship can have. Like her mentor, Fredric
Jablin, she is making a difference in the lives of Jepson students.
To make a donation to the Jablin Research Fellowship,
go to the donation page of
UR Online, check the box adjacent to Jepson School of Leadership
Studies under the heading “Donor Designations,” and type in “Jablin
Research Fellowship” in the box marked “Other Designation Information,
Gift Comments” under the heading “Donor Information.” |