By James Irwin
The George Washington University dedicated a Foggy Bottom Campus residence hall Friday afternoon in honor of a university trustee, alumnus and parent whose recent financial donations will provide a major boost to GW career services.
Mark R. Shenkman, M.B.A. ’67, and his wife, Rosalind, donated $5 million in May to support the GW Career Services Enhancement Initiative and the F. David Fowler Career Center at the School of Business. In recognition of these gifts, the GW Board of Trustees voted to rename the Ivory Tower residence hall Shenkman Hall.
The dedication, held in the Shenkman Hall courtyard on the second day of the university’s annual Alumni Weekend celebration, was attended by students, faculty, staff and trustees, and featured an unveiling of the dedication plaque for the newly named building.
“Mark Shenkman has had a long and distinguished association with the university,” GW President Steven Knapp said. “He has supported a wide range of initiatives and programs. We’re honoring today his unwavering commitment to the George Washington University.”
GW created the Career Services Enhancement Initiative in 2012 as an effort to strengthen the career culture for students, alumni and employers. The initiative aims to empower students and alumni to translate their academic and co-curricular experiences at the university into a lifetime of productive and engaged citizenship.
Additional funding will enable the Fowler Career Center at the School of Business and GW career services to provide services and resources to students, alumni, faculty and staff for strategic career planning and lifelong experiential learning.
“The real intent of our family gift is to facilitate and help GW students launch their professional careers,” Mr. Shenkman said. “Given the complex and competitive world we live in, students today need more frequent and formalized advice, guidance, coaching and mentoring in their career planning. Students should be afforded a greater opportunity to develop the required personal skills and marketing techniques necessary to secure a meaningful job upon graduation.”
Mr. Shenkman, founder of Shenkman Capital Management, Inc., has made gifts both individually and through his company in support of the School of Business Annual Fund, the School of Business Dean’s Fund, the School of Business Financial Markets Research Institute, the GW Cancer Institute Gala, the Hillel Fund and the President’s Fund for Excellence. In 2013, he established the Shenkman Seminar Series at the Graduate School of Political Management and funded the move and expansion of Veterans Memorial Park to its new location on Kogan Plaza.
“I think he has really hit every important facet of a GW life,” said GW Alumni Association President Steve Frenkil, B.A. ’74. “As a trustee he’s a steward of the university and is involved in developing policy and ways to advance GW. He understands the importance of giving and how that can help us thrive. Having his name on a building is a way of recognizing what he’s done for the university, and it provides a model for other people to engage in similar ways.”
