The Neureiter family creates scholarships for students to study abroad.
A family with ties to Geneseo for 80 years has made a major gift to the College. The Neureiters’ connection to Geneseo as well as their experiences studying and working abroad have transformed their lives, and they want students to have similar opportunities.
Norman Neureiter, Georgine Reid Neureiter, and Elizabeth Neureiter-Seely, have established the Neureiter Family Endowment Fund for Global Awareness and Intercultural Understanding to support Geneseo students. Their gift will provide need-based scholarships to help support students who are passionate about wanting to study abroad for at least one semester.
Students who study abroad will have a life-changing experience, bringing a great richness to their lives, and leading to meaningful and fulfilling career paths so vitally needed in today’s complex and challenging world,” said the Neureiter family in a statement.
The gift will benefit students like Emily Sterns ’18, an English literature major and sociology minor who spent a semester at Bath Spa University in England.
While I was there I learned to be more independent and discovered that my passion for English literature and travel runs deeper than I once believed,” said Sterns. “I learned to adapt to new places and gained knowledge from people and cultures across the globe.”
The Neureiters’ ties to the College began in 1937, when Norman and Elizabeth’s father, Paul Neureiter, joined the mathematics faculty. He began his teaching career in Austria before moving to the United States. He was a professor at Geneseo until 1965. At Geneseo, he played an integral role in the development of many departments and widely supported international exchange programs. Such international exchange, he said, will “help create a world consciousness.”
His son and daughter acted on that belief, as they studied and traveled abroad. Ultimately, it inspired their careers. Norman Neureiter’s life’s work for the pursuit of international cooperation for the advancement of science, technology, peace, and global security was ignited through a Fulbright Fellowship, which then led to a distinguished career serving the United States as the first science technology advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State, as Distinguished Presidential Fellow for International Affairs at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and as director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy.
Georgine Reid Neureiter’s passion for global awareness and intercultural understanding began early. As a young woman, she had a desire for travel abroad, and worked for Radio Free Europe in Munich. Later, after marriage to Norman, they lived in four different countries.
Elizabeth Neureiter-Seely’s life was transformed as a high school student when her father, Paul, was on a Fulbright Fellowship in the Netherlands. She attended a Dutch school there, through which her passion for languages was kindled, leading to a teaching career in the United States and Germany and later as professor of German, and ultimately professor of English for speakers of other languages at SUNY Monroe Community College.
Sarah Lambert ’19 and Macie Shum ’19 were recently named as the first recipients of the scholarship. Geneseo has international partnerships with 60 different programs in 39 countries. Nearly 40 percent of Geneseo students study abroad before they graduate. The College is committed to providing transformative learning experiences for its students so each student can realize their capacity for excellence, discover their passion, and make a lasting contribution to the greater good of all people. Dependent upon location, the gap between a year’s study on campus and a semester studying abroad can be up to $5,000 per student. The Neureiter gift will make significant impact on students’ ability to participate. It is the College’s goal to continue to raise funds to support students studying abroad and to further global awareness and intercultural understanding.
