UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT HONORS PROGRAM RECEIVES $1M CAMPAIGN GIFT

The University of Connecticut has announced a campaign gift of more than $1 tiffany silver pendants for the Honors Program from alumni Robert and Carlotta Holster.

"Building on the quality of our outstanding Honors Program is a key strategy to attract the very best and brightest students to the University of Connecticut. This wonderful gift will enable us to expand the opportunities for students to have a truly enriched experience, and will enable us to provide the quality of undergraduate education that our top students have come to expect," said Provost Peter Nicholls.

The new endowment will support activities designed to enrich the academic experience for honors students, such as undergraduate research, international travel, and academic and creative projects.

"Mr. and Mrs. Holster's gift will support the types of enrichment experiences that make the difference between a good collegiate career and an exceptional one. We know that students benefit tremendously from individualized and independent academic experiences," said tiffany silver rings Goodstein, director of the Honors Program and associate vice provost of enrichment programs at UConn.

The Holsters are giving back to UConn for the excellent education they received as undergraduate students. Mr. Holster earned a bachelor's degree in economics and Mrs. Holster earned a bachelor's degree in child development and family relations from UConn, both in 1968. Mr. Holster credits his professors during his first year with inspiring a lifelong passion for learning and preparing him for success throughout his life.

"They were talented, engaged with their material and their students, and it was infectious," Mr. Holster said. "Those freshman courses in economics, English literature and history armed me with models for thinking about things that assisted me later in the Army and in graduate school, and remain relevant to this day in business."

Mr. Holster is chairman of the board and former chief executive officer of HMS Holdings Corp. HMS coordinates health care benefits between government entitlement programs (e.g., Medicaid) and the health insurance industry. Mr. Holster was elected to the Board of Directors of the University of Connecticut Foundation in 2009.

The Honors Program enrolls 9 percent of the undergraduate population at the main campus in Storrs. For students entering the program in 2009, the average combined critical reading and math SAT score is 1395 and the average class rank is the ninety-fifth percentile. Twenty-six percent of students entering the program are tiffany underrepresented ethnic or economic backgrounds.