Volume 96, Number 2
2. Because Zak DeOssie gets to practice with the Pats.
by Paula Trespas
| When Zak DeOssie, a senior from a middle-class North Andover family and Big Blue’s quarterback last season, applied to Andover, his twin sister was attending a private Catholic school in Lawrence, another sister was in college, and his parents’ financial situation had been impacted by a divorce. Although DeOssie, the son of a former NFL player-turned-local sports commentator, was anxious to be accepted by Andover, he says, “There was no way in hell we could have afforded the tuition.” |
| Educating “youth from every quarter,” to borrow a phrase from the school’s constitution, is not a mere slogan. For the academy, it is a mission. Aid is awarded to families from across a range of socioeconomic circumstances. |
| But educating “youth
from every quarter,” to borrow a phrase
from
the school’s constitution, is not a mere slogan. For the academy, it is
a mission. As director of financial aid, James Ventre’s job is to support
this mission by recruiting top students from “every quarter,” determining
what families are eligible for financial aid and managing the financial aid budget. Ventre, a 1979 graduate, points out that the financial aid scholarship program is not just for low-income families; aid is awarded to families from across a range of socio-economic circumstances. Thus a family earning $20,000, $40,000, $80,000 or even more is, under certain circumstances, able to receive assistance. “Zak is a direct beneficiary of a strengthened endowment scholarship program; he is someone who, through the benefit of a Phelps Scholarship, has achieved at PA,” Ventre says. Richard J. Phelps ’46, once a scholarship recipient himself at Andover, funded the Phelps Scholarship program long before Campaign Andover to help scholar-athletes. Begun in 1990 and supported by an endowment valued today at more than $4.5 million, the Phelps program in 2001–02 supported about 23 boys and girls. An unexpected bonus for DeOssie was the indirect connection PA gave him with New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick ’71. Belichick offered Andover’s 6'4", 220-pound athlete the opportunity to practice with the 2002 Superbowl champions at the team’s summer training camp, where DeOssie participated in the team’s pre-season conditioning test in 2001. Last summer, Belichick invited him back to compete against the Pats’ defensive team when their third-string quarterback wasn’t able to practice. Along the way, Belichick took time out to give DeOssie valuable tips that helped ready the quarterback and team captain for last season’s three-win, four-loss, one-tie (to Exeter) record, in which DeOssie threw for more than 1,700 yards and 14 touchdowns. Varsity football coach Leon Modeste calls DeOssie “a model, a leader and a positive force on campus.” Yet he is but one star in a galaxy of financial aid beneficiaries at Andover—students who are selected for their academic excellence, intellectual curiosity, leadership skills and wide range of talents and interests. Kids like Harvard freshman Leanna Boychenko ’02, once the only female on PA’s varsity wrestling team, a top student in ancient Greek and Latin who was awarded the prestigious Catlin Prize in classics. And Barbara Badman ’03, who, in pursuing her goal to enter the medical field, takes the toughest molecular biology course offered at PA and worked last summer in one of Manhattan’s largest hospitals as a cardiologist’s assistant, administering EKGs, helping with echocardiograms and observing in the operating room. And Harvard student Michael Jaffe ’02, who, besides maintaining a rigorous academic schedule at PA, coached immigrants in Lawrence to become U.S. citizens and was the principal oboe in the Academy Symphony Orchestra, co-president of the Chamber Music Society, technology editor of The Phillipian and president of the Academy Techmasters. Overall, Ventre says, 38 percent of the student body receives some sort of financial aid. In 2001–02, Andover had 59 families receiving grants of $10,000 or less, 143 families granted between $10,000 and $23,000, and 105 families receiving grants greater than $23,000. Ten percent—or 101 students—receive full financial aid scholarships, some of which also include fees, expenses and travel. In each category, Ventre says, the school expects parents to assume some measure of financial responsibility. Explaining the impact Campaign Andover had on the financial aid program, Ventre says it energized alumni connections with the school, strengthened the security of parents now receiving aid and gave confidence to prospective families as they applied for grants. Most important, it added significantly to the financial aid endowment. Funds that go into the endowment are invested and in turn produce revenue that provides long-range support for the school. Endowed funds for scholarship grants generated by the campaign totaled $32 million, which raised the endowed portion of the financial aid budget from 40 percent to 80 percent. The cost of endowing a fund that fully supports a scholar is $500,000. However, partial scholarships can be named through endowment gifts of $25,000 or more. Newly named endowed scholarships received during Campaign Andover numbered nearly 100. They included the $5 million Tang Scholars Fund, established by Charter Trustee Oscar L. Tang ’56; the George Herbert Walker Bush Scholarship Fund, named for former U.S. President George Bush ’42, for which $3.3 million has been raised; and the Charles S. and Margaret S. Gage Scholarship Fund, established by the late Margaret Gage and the late Charles Gage ’21 in the amount of $2.5 million. Other new scholarship endowment gifts topping $1 million during the campaign were the Clarkson Family Scholarship, established by Stephen B. Clarkson ’55; the Mary Mallory Hadlow Scholarship, established by a bequest of the late Mary Mallory Hadlow ’22; and the H. Hanford Smith Jr. ’45 Fund, established in Smith’s name by Elizabeth and Richard Cashin ’71. Ventre says the “resounding collaboration” with which the alumni and parents responded to Campaign Andover’s call for more scholarship endowment not only provides more reliable support for PA’s ability to keep pursuing its vital mission, but also helps the school continue to attract top talent. “We believe,” he explains, “that the recognition, confidence in and attention paid to the endowment scholarship program through Campaign Andover helped to influence the strength of the financial aid matriculation yield, which has risen from 70 percent in 1992 to 83 percent in 2002.” |
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| E-mail: Theresa Pease |