Alumna Judy Ware and her husband Paul Ware have gifted Elizabethtown College $3 million towards the Build Brighter Futures scholarship campaign. The money will be used to create the Judy ‘68, H’25 and Paul Ware Scholars Program, a permanent, annual endowment.
The endowment will focus on financing Signature Learning Experiences (SLEs) dedicated to creating peace, increasing civic engagement and expanding global learning. This puts the college’s mission of “Educate for Service” into action.
There are multiple different SLEs students can take part in. They can work directly in internships and project-based work, do research guided by faculty, study abroad or do community-based learning.
These experiences aren’t entirely free, though. Some of them, like research projects and studying abroad, can cost the student extra. This new program is aiming to change this and make it more accessible.
“The scholarship will help cover experiences that typically require some level of additional financial burden for the student,” President Betty Rider said.
Giving students a new opportunity to participate in these previously financial-locked experiences allows them to gain transformational skills they couldn’t get before. As the scholarship continues to get funded, more and more students will be able to become recipients to the scholarship and the SLEs.
On the other side of things, the program will build a community within the recipients. Members will work with Etown’s institute for Engagement, Mission and Impact. It acts as a connection point between the college and local and global partnerships, making it easy for students to engage with the world outside of campus.
“[It] will support students who seek an experience that is aligned with the Institute for Engagement, Mission and Impact,” Rider said. “As a collective unit, the Institute strives to foster a campus culture of inclusion, service and advocacy.”
Through this inclusion, service and advocacy creates students that aren’t afraid to voice their opinion and rally for the right thing. Having them work directly with the institute will build these skills while they change the world around them.
The institute itself is a collection of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement; the Center for Global Understanding and Peacebuilding; the Office of Study Abroad; the Office of Student Opportunity, Access and Engagement and the Office of International Student Services.
Besides the upcoming scholars program, the Wares also created the annual Judy S. ’68 and Paul W. Ware Lecture on Peacemaking and Global Citizenship in 2007. The event brings multiple different influential people to talk on campus; their conversations invoking thought and enhancing global learning.
Judy Ware is a trustee emerita of Etown, has served for 15 years on the board of trustees and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the college in 2025. She graduated from Etown with a degree in Elementary Education.
Paul acts as president and chairman of the board of directors of the Ferree Foundation. The foundation is focused on advancing the arts, culture and history and is dedicated to increasing education, youth engagement, health, human services and local economic and community development. They do this by supporting non-profit organizations throughout the Lancaster area.
They have given one of the five biggest donations to the Build Brighter Futures Scholarship Campaign. This campaign is the greatest scholarship fundraising effort in Etown’s history, with a goal of $40 million. So far, $36 million has been raised towards this goal. There have been 1,900 donors and 122 new scholarships created from their gifts.
“Our goal with this and other funds from the current campaign to Build Brighter Futures is to provide more students with access to Signature Learning Experiences with lower or no additional financial burden to the student,” Rider said. “We know that a great deal of learning occurs during these impactful experiences and we want to reduce or eliminate barriers for students to be able to complete the SLEs that make sense for their academic and career goals.”
