For Immediate Release; Photo and caption on Flickr

Contact:      Susan Allen
                        News and Media Relations
                        Galloway, N.J. 08205
                        Susan.Allen@stockton.edu
                        (609) 652-4790
                        www.stockton.edu/media

 Galloway, N.J. – Elaine Bukowski, professor emerita of Physical Therapy, endowed a $25,000 gift to establish the Edward and Melanja Bukowski Memorial DPT Scholarship Fund honoring her late parents and the students she taught at Stockton University over her 29-year tenure.

“I consider students one of our best investments for the future,” said Bukowski, who was a part of Stockton’s Physical Therapy program since its founding in 1987.

For more than 20 years, Bukowski was the primary care giver for her parents, who spent 64 years together. “They were always the first to volunteer at their local church, at the boy scouts, at their children’s school,” she said, “and, even in their retirement years, they continued to do the same, including coming to one of my classes with the second-year Physical Therapy students at Stockton.”

For years, her parents offered students hands-on experiences and answered questions about how they dealt with their physical disabilities. They valued service and giving back to the community, and in that spirit, Bukowski wanted to give back in their memory.

The memorial scholarship is for graduate students in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program.

“I came to Stockton looking for a job and left 29 years later with a second family. For many years I have wanted to honor my parents, my first family, for all they did for me and for my students in the DPT program at Stockton, my second family,” she said.

“The best way we can assure our future is to invest in our students today,” she added.

President Harvey Kesselman said, “Dr. Bukowski has been a driving force behind the Physical Therapy program, which became Stockton’s first doctoral program in 2006, since the very beginning. She continues to make an impact on our students by giving them opportunities to pursue their dreams.”  

Representing the Physical Therapy program at the gift signing were Bess Kathrins, director and professor of Physical Therapy, Nancy Koplin, BS ’92 and DPT ’09, and current students Justin Hanus, Amanda Dowling and Amy Higgins.

Describing her time at Stockton, Nancy Koplin said, “I had a phenomenal experience both times (as an undergraduate and a doctoral student), and I wouldn’t have done the DPT outside of Stockton.”