Ruth Ashelford Pollock

The late Ruth Ashelford Pollock, quoted from Ruth’s acceptance speech when she won the NIU Foundation Award for Lifetime Giving.

“When people ask me why I give, my answer is very simple: I give to help people. My journey through life taught me to value one thing above all else…humanity.

Supporting education makes good business sense, and a good business person likes to see how things are run. That’s why it has been important to me to see my impact on students over my lifetime.

The qualities I want to reward in students are hard-work, discipline, and responsibility…but above all…I want to reward students who demonstrate humanity.

One of the greatest thrills is to give a student who doesn’t realize his or her potential a little push…philanthropy does that…it gives us all a little push.”