Fairfield University’s John Charles Meditz College of Arts and Sciences recognized a transformative $100,000 gift from James and Kristen Kuczo of Kevin’s Afterglow establishing the Kevin Kuczo Memorial Fund.
The endowment will support an annual student award as well as faculty and student research in the mental health area honoring Kevin’s life and memory.
On May 20, faculty gathered from the Psychology and Brain Sciences Department to recognize the Kuzco’s generosity and the opportunities the gift will create for undergraduate research, experiential learning, and academic programming focused on mental health within the Department. The Endowment will allow the department to further the department’s commitment to preparing students to address growing mental health challenges while engaging in meaningful, hands-on research alongside faculty mentors.
“The heart of what they [the department’s faculty] do is connect students to hands-on research experiences that engages the students, which gets them into careers in mental health, counseling, and behavioral neuroscience,” said Dean Richard Greenwald, PhD. “The research the students are doing supervised by their faculty mentors actively improves the discipline itself.”
James shared, “We want to thank you. Hearing you talk about empathy and social situations reinforced how important this work is. We originally focused on scholarships, but the research component is important too.”
The endowment and gift are in honor of their son Kevin, who struggled with depression during Covid-19 when there was a shortage of psychiatrists. James and Kristen are on a mission to make a difference to get more doctors. They were pleased to hear that the department is growing and that students are taking more of an interest in psychology. “Thank you for making a difference.
This is the department that has the pipeline,” said James. “We are pleased that the youth are taking more of an interest in psychology.”
