KINGSTON – The University of Rhode Island has received a $100,000 endowment from a longtime supporter, the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association, to establish a four-year scholarship for students studying the plant sciences, horticulture, turf science and related fields.
“We sponsor a golf tournament every year to raise money for this scholarship, and we hope to keep adding to it every year,” RINLA President Jean Cotta, a 1987 URI grad and owner of Portsmouth Nursery, said in a statment yesterday.
“In addition,” she said, “10 percent of our membership dues are designated for scholarships and another 10 percent goes to support research for the industry.”
RINLA previously has donated $150,000 in plants and labor, in 1994, to create the URI Learning Landscape; has established a $50,000 endowment to maintain it; and last year provided $50,000 to support the hiring of a new horticulture professor. Each year, its members plant a tree on the campus in memory of a deceased RINLA member.
“URI is a priority for us,” said RINLA Treasurery Joe Majeika, a 1982 graduate of the university and the owner of Wescott Perennials in Ashaway, explaining that “URI students are the future of our industry in Rhode Island.”
The university’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences, along with its Department of Plant Sciences and the URI Cooperative Extension, have been the main beneficiaries of RINLA’s gifts, said Catherine E.C. Sullivan, associate dean for development.
“We’ve had a long and fruitful relationship with the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association,” she said, “and it is heartening to know that the industry has gained as much from the partnership as the University has.”
RINLA’s gift is part of URI’s Making a Difference campaign, which is seeking to raise $100 million to recruit and retain faculty, provide scholarships and finance academic and research initiatives.
Additional information is available at www.uri.edu/news.
