Her Spirit of Giving Is Strong

While most college students graduate with a sense of relief knowing they are done giving money to their alma mater, Lori Pekarek took a very different attitude when she graduated from Cornell College in 1984. She was excited to start giving back…immediately.

"I've given back every year since I graduated," says Lori. With pride, she loves seeing her name in the Cornell Report and knows she is doing her part to enhance the school she loves dearly. Giving is selfish. It makes you feel good.

Lori wasn't sure where she wanted to go to school when she graduated from high school. Cornell was very close to home, and she was looking seriously at other, larger universities. But Cornell persisted until she decided to enroll, and she's so glad she did.

"The people really cared and wanted me to go there, and it showed," says Lori. "Going from a small high school to a small college was the best thing I could have done."

Now Director of Ticket Operations at the University of South Florida, Lori is still heavily connected to Cornell. In addition to giving annually, she and her husband, Dan, have both named Cornell in their wills. For a wedding gift, one of Lori and Dan's friends gave them each a will.

"I didn't realize how crucial it is," says Lori. But after they started talking about how much effort they put into making sure everything is taken care of before they leave for a vacation-something so temporal-she and Dan decided it was imperative to plan for the future of the people and places they love most. "It's not morbid; it's smart and it means you care."

While Lori doesn't consider herself wealthy, she feels that what she does have should go where it's important to her.

"It's a chance to be part of something
bigger than yourself," she says. "You're doing your part to maintain the integrity of Cornell."