Richard Dum and Donna Hoffman

Richard Dum and Donna HoffmanDr. Richard Dum and Dr. Donna Hoffman are quick to acknowledge they’ve led good lives with successful careers. The couple studied hard and worked even harder, making breakthrough discoveries along the way about how the brain functions. Now, this husband and wife are paying it forward to the next generation of scientists with an endowed scholarship.

“Youth are our future. If we don’t support our youth, we’ve lost everything,” Dum said. “And it’s foolish not to do what’s necessary to educate them and support them.”

Having worked on college campuses nearly all their adult lives, Richard and Donna know the value—and the cost—of an education.

“I’d never have gone to Brown University without a scholarship,” Hoffman said. “I really appreciated the fact that I was supported in my education.”

To show their appreciation for the past and hope for future University of Pittsburgh students, the couple endowed the Hoffman and Dum Family Scholarship. They also included additional funding for the scholarship in their estate plan.

Richard and Donna know there’s no shortage of need among college students and they encourage others to create endowed scholarships.

“We’ve been doing it by ‘baby steps’,” said Donna. “It all adds up, that’s how we did it.”