“Go out and meet a glacier”

Binghamton University may be one of the most selective public universities in the nation, but not every student comes here with an unblemished academic record. Some may have immigrated to the United States and needed to master new language and cultural skills. Some may have shown great promise in school despite a severe economic disadvantage.

Other students may be like Jeff Silverstein, who floundered under an overly ambitious course load during his first freshman semester at the University of Miami.

" I had a somewhat checkered academic performance during my first attempt at college," said Silverstein. "It was a mistake."

He changed his course of study and buckled down, and by the time he completed his second semester at Miami, his grades were high enough to gain admission to Harpur College. "It had a wonderful reputation," said Silverstein, a native of Long Island. "Even back then, it was a great school in the SUNY system.

" I was very grateful to Binghamton then and I've been very grateful since," he said.

Silverstein and his wife, Ann Balitsky Silverstein, recently endowed a scholarship for transfer students whose early college work at another four-year institution was not academically strong, but who demonstrated continuous academic improvement -- enough to meet Binghamton's high admission standards.

" The point of the scholarship is that everybody needs a second chance," said Ann Silverstein, who met her future husband in the campus snack bar. She was drawn to Binghamton because of its excellent liberal arts curriculum and its relatively small size compared to her other choice, Brooklyn College, in her hometown. "The campus was so open," she said. "People were friendly and the professors were very accessible."

Ann Silverstein earned her bachelor's degree in political science at Harpur and a master's in education at Long Island University. She is currently a reading specialist in an elementary school.

Jeff Silverstein earned his bachelor's degree in psychology at Harpur and received a master's degree at Duke University. He is now administrative director of laboratories at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire.

The Silversteins' three sons also chose to complete their undergraduate studies at state universities, partly because the couple had such a positive experience at Binghamton, Jeff Silverstein said.
" Binghamton gave us both the tools to go on to graduate school and to be successful," he said. "My wife and I are very pleased, honored and grateful to be able to endow this scholarship."

-- Susanne Thiel