Each spring before commencement, instructor Alan Minskoff takes the seniors who are about to graduate with a minor in journalism to dinner. In a normal year, anywhere from ten to fifteen students are treated to dinner at Orchard House on Sunny Slope Road, south of Caldwell.
Friday, Minskoff and wife Royanne formalized an even more meaningful way to support journalism students at The College of Idaho by signing an agreement to endow the Alan and Royanne Minskoff Scholarship, a multi-year commitment to fund $300,000 to journalism students at The College of Idaho. Click here to to see and hear more from the event.
“I thought it was important to not wait until the end of my life to get the benefit of seeing something like this happen,” Minskoff said. “So Royanne and I were talking and said, why don’t we do this now? We can have the same impact, only sooner, and see how it affects students and affects the College.”
The Minskoffs have long held an appreciation and placed a high value on the type of education students receive at the C of I and wanted to do something significant to assist in the success of students.
“Both Alan and I believe in higher education and the importance of it,” Royanne said. “You can’t teach if you can’t get students into the classroom. And if they can’t afford it, but they’ve got the talent, the skills and the capacity, we just bring it to them.”
Minskoff has been teaching at the College for 18 years and doesn’t plan on putting away his lesson plans any time soon. But Friday’s announcement was a unique setting for the instructor, who sat in front of a group of colleagues as the scholarship was introduced. The group included the school’s Co-Presidents, Doug Brigham and Jim Everett, along with Vice President for Academic Affairs David Douglass, Associate Vice President for College Relations Jack Cafferty as well as Barry Fujishin, the College’s major gifts officer.
“It was fun, it was a little different, it was like a reversal of what I normally do,” Minskoff said with a laugh. “We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t believe that it could do some good.”
“Do it now,” Royanne concluded. “Alan had wanted to wait until after he retired and I said, ‘let’s not wait, let’s go now.’”
The College of Idaho has a 128-year-old legacy of excellence. The C of I is known for its outstanding academic programs, winning athletics tradition and history of producing successful graduates, including seven Rhodes Scholars, three governors, and countless business leaders and innovators. Its distinctive PEAK Curriculum challenges students to attain competency in the four knowledge peaks of humanities, natural sciences, social sciences and a professional field—empowering them to earn a major and three minors in four years. The College’s close-knit, residential campus is located in Caldwell, where its proximity both to Boise and to the world-class outdoor activities of southwest Idaho’s mountains and rivers offers unique opportunities for learning beyond the classroom. For more information, visit www.collegeofidaho.edu.