Stamps Foundation Gives UW-Madison Stamp of Approval

Randy McDow, executive director of the Penny and E. Roe Stamps Family Foundation

Randy McDow, executive director of the Penny and E. Roe Stamps Family Foundation, meets Bucky during a tour of campus.

Randy McDow, executive director of the Penny and E. Roe Stamps Family Foundation, visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus December 2 to meet with representatives of the School of Music, the College of Engineering and the Chancellor’s Scholars program. The Stamps Family Foundation’s Stamps Scholars Program partners with top universities from coast to coast in providing four-year merit-based scholarships to exceptional undergraduate students.

This is the inaugural year for the Stamps Scholars program at UW-Madison. Currently, the Stamps Scholars Program at the University exists within the School of Music, where it originated with a single student, Eric Duwe, a freshman from River Forest, Illinois, majoring in piano performance. Beginning in 2012, the Stamps Foundation has agreed to provide the School of Music with up to five four-year undergraduate merit-based scholarships each year.

School of Music Chair John Stevens has indicated these scholarships will play a significant role in attracting, recruiting and retaining top music students at UW-Madison. The School of Music will award one scholarship for each of five areas: strings, woodwind, percussion, brass and vocal.

The UW Foundation’s Aaron Zitzelsberger is working with the Stamps Foundation to expand the Stamps Scholars program to other areas of campus.

While not alumni of UW-Madison or of many of the universities they now support, Penny and Roe Stamps have revealed a larger vision behind their extraordinary generosity: “Inspired by the impact that our university experiences have had on our own lives, we have chosen to support exceptional students in their pursuit of higher education. We have worked with great universities to create programs offering enriched educational experiences for Stamps Scholars. It is our hope that today’s Stamps Scholars will become the mentors and supporters of the next generation of promising young students.”