CALS Donors, Students Celebrate Scholarships

CALS Student Donor Brunch

Nutrition major Andrea Emmerich (second from right) visits with Ann Delwiche, Barbara Feeney and Jake Delwiche at Saturday’s brunch to honor CALS scholarship donors and recipients. Photo by Sevie Kenyon.

About 130 scholarship recipients and donors shared their stories Saturday, November 6, at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) Student and Donor Brunch at Monona Terrace in Madison.

This year, the College awarded more than $1 million in support to about 800 undergraduate, graduate and short-course students, said Janine Jensen, Student Services program manager. Philanthropy was essential to those awards.

The α-Helix Scholarship allowed Gregory Schleis to spend 2 ½ weeks in Guatemala helping indigenous people with health care. Funded by Professor Emeritus Perry Frey and his wife, Carolyn, the scholarship allowed him to live the Wisconsin Idea, which calls for extending the boundaries of the university to the state and the world, Schleis said. Scholarships encourage fearless sifting and winnowing to find the truth.

Meeting the scholarship recipient makes a gift more real, said Jake Delwiche (’67 BS L&S), who with his family established the Sadie and Richard Delwiche Scholarship Fund for a junior or senior in nutritional sciences. “It supports the idea that it’s the right thing to do.” The Delwiches met nutrition major and Delwiche scholarship recipient Andrea Emmerich, who, coincidentally grew up in DePere, Wisconsin, about a half mile from Jake Delwiche’s childhood home. She hopes to become a dentist.

The annual brunch was established more than a decade ago to bring students and donors and their family members together to share their histories. The event thanks donors for their scholarship gifts and recognizes students for their accomplishments and encourages them to give back to future students when they have the means to do so.

The Delwiche tradition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison runs deep. Delwiche’s grandfather, a Belgian immigrant, attended the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences early in the last century and became superintendent of the Northern Wisconsin Research Stations. At least 25 of his descendents also have attended the University, including his seven sons. The Delwiche scholarship was established in honor of Delwiche’s parents, Sadie (’35 BS HEC) and Richard (’35 BS ALS, ’36 MS ALS), both now deceased. His parents believed in education, Delwiche said.


Watch the Student and Donor Brunch