{"id":119610,"date":"2016-11-28T09:15:26","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T14:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=119610"},"modified":"2016-11-29T13:43:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-29T18:43:01","slug":"promise-fulfilled-stern-familys-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2016\/11\/promise-fulfilled-stern-familys-story\/","title":{"rendered":"A Promise Fulfilled: The Stern Family&#8217;s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"grey-sidebar floating-sidebar col-xs-12 col-sm-4\">\n  <\/p>\n<p>#GivingTuesday is a global day of giving fueled by the power of social media and collaboration.<\/p>\n<p>Celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, #GivingTuesday kicks off the charitable season, when many focus on their holiday and end-of-year giving.<\/p>\n<p>One of the best ways to get involved is in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foundation.uconn.edu\/giving-tuesday\/\">your own community<\/a>. We&#8217;ve created a directory to help you find organizations, charities, events, and more in your own community.<\/p>\n<p>This Nov. 29, join the movement and give \u2013 whether it\u2019s some of your time, a donation, gift, or the power of your voice in your local community. <\/aside>\n<figure id=\"attachment_119754\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-119754\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/JoeStern44ENG.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-119754 img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/JoeStern44ENG-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Joe Stern '44 (ENG). (Courtesy of Linda Jo Stern '77 (CAHNR))\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/JoeStern44ENG-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/JoeStern44ENG-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/JoeStern44ENG-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/JoeStern44ENG-280x420.jpg 280w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/450;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-119754\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joe Stern &#8217;44 (ENG). (Courtesy of Linda Jo Stern &#8217;77 (CAHNR))<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Linda Jo Stern \u201977 (CAHNR) always keeps a picture of her father on her desk. He\u2019s in a dark suit, wearing a polka dot bowtie \u2013 his signature fashion statement \u2013 and is pensive.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Stern \u201944 (ENG) was the first in his family to attend college, graduating from UConn with a degree in electrical engineering. After graduation, he enjoyed an accomplished career in telecommunications. Joe worked for CBS for 25 years, helped design the transmitter on top of the Empire State Building, and developed five patents, including one that led to the creation of on-screen television guides.<\/p>\n<p>I think I followed in his footsteps,\u201d says Linda Jo. \u201cHe was very grateful for being able to go to college. He always said very positive things about being at UConn. He was able to make an entire career out of [his degree]; it gave him the necessary tools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s basically what happened to me too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Linda Jo was not a traditional UConn student. She began her collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin but was unable to finish her degree. She lived and worked in Madison, Wisc., for five years and then moved to New York, where she worked and took premed courses at Columbia University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[These courses] urged me on even more to want to study,\u201d she says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t figure out where I could go that I could afford. My father reminded me that he had had a great experience at UConn and that it had set him on his career path.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At 24, she enrolled at the University, majoring in nutritional science with a concentration in community nutrition. She finished her degree in just two and a half years at the age of 26. She credits many people who helped her along the way, including Kirvin Knox, a former dean of the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe told me about the program called University Year in Action, part of the VISTA program,\u201d says Linda Jo. \u201cYou got credit for doing community service and you got a stipend. He recommended me for that, and he also helped me get approval to take 20 credits a semester so that I could graduate sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Upon graduation, Linda Jo worked as a nutritionist in a community health center in Boston. She says her degree stood her in good stead for many years, as she worked her way up to assistant director of the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program (WIC) in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_119706\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-119706\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Linda-and-Joe-Stern.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-119706 img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Linda-and-Joe-Stern-241x300.jpg\" alt=\"Claire and Joe Stern. (Photo courtesy of Linda Jo Stern '77 (CAHNR))\" width=\"300\" height=\"373\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Linda-and-Joe-Stern-241x300.jpg 241w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Linda-and-Joe-Stern-768x954.jpg 768w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Linda-and-Joe-Stern-824x1024.jpg 824w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Linda-and-Joe-Stern-338x420.jpg 338w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Linda-and-Joe-Stern.jpg 1530w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/373;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-119706\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claire Stern and Joe Stern &#8217;44 (ENG). (Photo courtesy of Linda Jo Stern &#8217;77 (CAHNR))<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI really owe a lot to UConn,\u201d she says. \u201cThey didn\u2019t think I was odd for returning to college at 24. I had nothing but positive experiences at UConn from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thirteen years ago, in 2003, her father Joe and his wife Claire decided to give back to his alma mater. They wanted to fund a scholarship for the School of Engineering that would provide need-based support for female engineering students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a great combination of my mother\u2019s interest in providing women with opportunities, and my dad getting his start at UConn and wanting to give something back,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, Joe passed away before the scholarship could be fully established.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was just sitting there, like a promise that had not been fulfilled,\u201d says Linda Jo.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n  <p>There\u2019s a quiet satisfaction that\u2019s associated with fulfilling the ideal you set up. <cite> &#8212 Linda Jo Stern<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Recently, Linda Jo\u2019s mother died. Claire was a passionate community organizer with a concern for the environment. She founded her own company, Claire Stern Associates, and worked on behalf of communities that wanted to reduce detrimental environmental impacts. As part of her work, she began working alongside her husband.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs cable television became more popular, cable lines were being installed with little regard for their impact on communities,\u201d says Linda Jo. \u201cMany towns and cities decided to establish regulations that a community assessment needed to be done. My mother would do the community assessments and the environmental impact statement, while my father would do the technical [part].\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_119707\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-119707\" style=\"width: 226px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/SternDaughter.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-119707 size-medium img-responsive lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/SternDaughter-226x300.jpg\" alt=\"Linda Jo Stern. (Photo courtesy of Linda Jo Stern '77 (CAHNR))\" width=\"226\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/SternDaughter-226x300.jpg 226w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/SternDaughter-317x420.jpg 317w, https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/SternDaughter.jpg 328w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 226px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 226\/300;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-119707\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Linda Jo Stern &#8217;77 (CAHNR). (Photo courtesy of Linda Jo Stern)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Upon her mother\u2019s passing, Linda Jo realized that she could complete the original pledge to the scholarship fund that had been made by her parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo honor my father and to honor both of their intentions, I wanted to finish the pledge,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>She has committed to doing just that and also updated the scholarship\u2019s name to the Joe Stern Scholarship Fund.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeither my mother\u2019s name, nor my name, needed to be on there,\u201d explains Linda Jo. \u201cHe was the one who graduated from UConn and he was the engineer.&#8221; He also gave us \u2013 as a family \u2013 the opportunity to learn about the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Linda Jo has fond memories of her parents \u2013 from living in locations around the world including Argentina, Venezuela, and Europe; to watching her mother, Claire, earn her bachelor\u2019s degree at the age of 65 and her master\u2019s at 75 from New York University. She is proud to honor them with a scholarship that can help students follow their dreams.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe usually make promises based on positive ideals, and if you can\u2019t fulfill them, that\u2019s understandable,\u201d says Linda Jo. \u201cI believe that there\u2019s a quiet satisfaction that\u2019s associated with fulfilling the ideal you set up. You\u2019re going to give to something you cared about or your relative cared about. It\u2019s good to try to make that happen because it feels really positive to make good on that commitment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s part of the paying forward that many folks talk about,\u201d she adds. \u201cI feel like the most important thing is to try to help people. I think it\u2019s our job as the older generation to help as best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Linda Jo Stern &#8221;77 (CAHNR) has fulfilled a pledge originally made by her late father, Joe Stern &#8217;44 (ENG), to establish a scholarship for female engineering students. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":119708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-119610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 10:49:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119610"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119755,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119610\/revisions\/119755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/119708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119610"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=119610"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=119610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}