Siegel talks to Rankin Foundation
Jun 21, 2007 by Rebecca Quigley, Athens Banner-Herald
Betty Siegal - photo taken from University of Southern Mississippi
The first female president in the University System of Georgia spoke in honor of the first woman elected to U.S. Congress at the annual Jeannette Rankin Foundation dinner.
Betty L. Siegel, president of Kennesaw State University from 1981 until 2006, gave the keynote speech at the dinner on Thursday night at the Classic Center.
Rankin, who spent her retirement years in Oconee County, willed her estate to a group of women with the stipulation that they use it to educate low-income women.
The group established the foundation and set up a college scholarship endowment with $16,000 from the sale of Rankin’s estate in 1976.
The endowment has grown to $700,000, and the foundation holds the dinner every year to raise money for the scholarship fund. More than 450 women have attended college on foundation scholarships since 1978, and 78 women received $2,000 scholarships in 2006.
Previous scholarship recipients MagdaLena Nieves and Mary Kay Salchert also spoke at the dinner on Thursday.
With the announcement of this year’s winners on Thursday, the foundation awarded a total of $1 million in scholarships to more than 500 women from around the country, according to a news release. For more information about the foundation and the scholarship program, visit www.rankinfoundation.org*
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