All the difference

Sue Guinan Griffith ’80 keeps on her desk an oversized card. On it are 45 handwritten notes, each one from a high school student who said thank you to Griffith for her leadership in providing initial funding to launch UD’s Female Aspiring Business Scholars program with Jessica Holscott ’97.

But this summer, Griffith got an extra special thank you. It was in person, from a participant from the inaugural FABS cohort from 2022. The student has since enrolled in the School of Business Administration and is excelling in her studies. 

She told Griffith, “This program has made all the difference for me.”

Griffith is among the thousands of donors whose gifts helped UD surpass its fundraising goal of $400 million in the We Soar campaign. Donors are fueling UD’s commitment to enhanced access, hands-on learning, and innovation and excellence. The fundraising that continues during the last year of the campaign will take student success even higher. 

Entering the business world was not easy in the 1980s, Griffith said. She had no female mentors to guide and inspire her. She worked hard — including earning her MBA from UD in 1986 — and made her own opportunities, which led to her becoming chief financial officer for a multibillion-dollar division of Bank One, which later merged with JPMorgan Chase.

With a program like FABS, during which rising high school juniors and seniors come to campus to live and learn about business in community, young women gain professional skills and an understanding of what they’d like to pursue. 

“It gives them confidence that they can get into college, study and succeed,” Griffith said.

As a member of UD’s board of trustees, Griffith said she sees the campaign’s philanthropic success as a partnership between the good intentions of donors and the innovative work of the University. For example, she points to gifts that are helping Pell-eligible students gain an international education by studying abroad. 

“A lot of people want their philanthropy to make a difference,” she said. “At UD, it does — and I can.”

She plans to continue working with UD to develop other initiatives to support and advance women business students — her way of saying thank you for the good foundation the University laid for her.