Chain reactions are powerful. One student graduates from Austin College and gives a sincere recommendation of the institution to a former teacher’s son. That young man then attends an Austin College spring preview, decides to attend, and earns his undergraduate education. Years later, recognizing the degree to which he benefited from the guidance and teaching received in the Austin College Political Science Department, he makes a significant gift to ensure someone else’s son or daughter can have the same opportunity.
That donor was Andy Porter ’95. He recalls the recommendation he received-that Austin College was committed to “encouraging students to engage the world around them through study abroad, internships, and meaningful community service,” Porter said. That was enough to spur him to attend a 1990 Austin College preview event where he sat in on an international relations class taught by Shelly Williams, professor emeritus of political science.
Williams took time to talk with the high school visitors after class. “This short, after-class discussion probably lasted no more than 15 minutes,” Porter said, “but it was in this small moment that I had the important opportunity to see Shelly as a reflection of the College’s genuine commitment to developing students as both scholars and citizens.”
Since graduating from Austin College, Porter’s opinion hasn’t changed. His Austin College education no doubt assisted him in obtaining his law degree at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1998 and assists him today as a staff attorney for the Sixth Appellate District of the State of Texas. “Austin College was the right choice for me,” Porter said. “Its small size offered ample opportunity to develop leadership skills, and I had professors who were genuinely interested in teaching, challenging, and inspiring all their students.”
It was the influence of those professors and a grandmother’s “ardent support of Christian higher education” that led Porter to give back to Austin College in the form of oil and gas properties he had accompanied his grandmother to the bank to purchase in the mid-1980s. “When I inherited these mineral interests a few years ago, I began making plans to transfer them to Austin College in furtherance of the cause in which my grandmother so strongly believed,” he said.
With the assistance of Austin College’s staff, Porter was able to make a gift to create an endowment to assist with operating expenses of the Political Science Department in appreciation to the professors who impacted his life and career. “I learned so much from each of them,” he said. “My only hope is that the gift will, in some small way, enable the department to continue the strong legacy from which I benefited.”
“Andy’s gift to the department provides us with additional resources to support our students in their many exciting endeavors,” said Don Rodgers, assistant professor of political science. “The kind of support provided through this gift is one of the reasons that Austin College students have so many unique opportunities.”
Porter’s gift is an example of the donor-centric approach Austin College’s Institutional Advancement staff hopes to achieve with any interested donor. “We really want to develop strong interpersonal relationships with our donors so that when they identify what they are genuinely passionate about – what the Austin College experience has meant to them – we can help match their passions with a philanthropic opportunity on campus,” said Jennifer Pearson, Director of Development. “We also want to strengthen the bond between the donor, the institution, and recipients of the donor’s generosity by structuring gifts in a way that is both personalized and tax wise.”
In Porter’s case, the approach has worked well. He said he couldn’t be happier knowing “some future ‘Roo” would get the same type of experience he did in “Kerry Brock’s calculus class, Jackie Moore’s course on the history of the civil rights movement, or traipsing through Europe with Hunt Tooley to study World War II.”
The intangible benefits of those experiences make Porter confident in his decision to invest something back to Austin College. “I loved my Austin College experience,” Porter said. “It is only natural that I would want others to be exposed to such a positive learning environment.” After all, the chain reaction probably began with a gift made long before the time of Porter or the alumna who recommended Austin College to him. A gift may well have been made by someone who wanted to make sure “some future ‘Roo”-someone else’s son or daughter-would benefit too.
The Value of Mentorship
Shelly Williams left Johns Hopkins University for Austin College in 1970 determined to be a teacher, not a researcher. He ended up spending 39 years doing much more than just teaching at Austin College. He impacted the lives of numerous students like Andy Porter. “I chose Austin College because it was a teaching institution,” Williams said. “I believed that I had to make a difference in people’s lives and that was what was important in the world, not building up your own academic reputation.”
Much like Porter is not the first to give back financially to Austin College, Williams was not the first to follow such a philosophy. Yet, both Porter and Williams have decided to carry the torch forward. Williams fondly recalled mentors like Robert Osgood, one of his professors at Johns Hopkins, and Lee Posey, Dallas business leader and generous supporter of Austin College’s Posey Leadership Institute, and their impact on his own life. Both Osgood and Posey served as major influences in the creation of the Osgood Center for International Studies in Washington, D.C. The center offers “an experiential learning center built on the programs and traditions started at Austin College,” Williams said.
“Lee Posey set the standard,” Williams said. “He said to one of my leadership students that he didn’t start living until he started helping others get an education.” Williams said he realizes the wisdom of Posey’s words every day and hopes every student can grasp what Andy Porter did when his gift to Austin College was motivated by the desire to help provide educational experiences to others. “I hope that other students realize that their successes and their inspirations have been provided by other people, and you have to pay that forward,” he said. “You’re not going to go to your grave saying ‘I wish I wouldn’t have helped so many people.’ It’s going to be the most gratifying thing you can do.”
For more information about how you can make a difference at Austin College by establishing an endowment for a specific department and/or donating your oil/gas/mineral rights, please contact us at plannedgiving@austincollege.edu or 903.813.2336.
Back to Donor Stories >>