Stephen and Susan Rector | photo by Susan English

• Goal for scholarships: $35 million
• Amount raised: $23.1 million

Stephen W. Rector, PetE’72, MS PetE’73, got the chance for a college education thanks to scholarships in petroleum engineering. Now, Rector and his wife, Susan, are giving that same chance to future generations of Miners through their $1 million scholarship endowment.

UMR needs to attract quality students, to encourage diversity and to recruit students interested in studying biotechnology and other emerging fields. The scholarships established through the Advancing Excellence Campaign will create opportunities for future generations of Miners.

Maybe one of them will be the next Miner in space. Maybe one of them will patent an energy-saving device or a life-saving instrument that hasn’t even been conceived of yet.

You can’t put a value on a UMR education. Just ask former Student Council President Lauren Huchingson, MIS’07. “I have learned at UMR that I can do anything I put my mind to,” she says, “if I just take chances and be fearless.”