Minding the Gap
Having struggled with college costs, new Trustee Carole Sleeper (M.A. â05) is helping TCâs students
Carole Sleeper
Some years ago, when taught first grade, one of her students had not received an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), though he clearly had a learning disability. Rather, the boyâs kindergarten teacher had addressed his behavioral issues by ordering him to stand alone in a corner. âShe didnât realize he needed help,â says Sleeper (M.A. â05), who recently joined TCâs Board. When Sleeper procured the IEP, the boyâs family, which was using the program then called Food Stamps, presented her with a can of beans â âthe nicest gift Iâve ever received.â Sleeperâs mother, a high school valedictorian, was dissuaded from college on the grounds that young women should become secretaries, bank tellers or wives. Sleeperâs father, an electrician and handyman, left high school before earning a diploma. Yet both urged her to attend college, even though affording it would be tough. Sleeper attended Susquehanna University on a scholarship. Later, when her husband, , became successful in financial investment, she taught. She recalls absorbing the cost of school supplies, books and even the rugs used for story time: âA lot of the kids had nothing, so supplies were leaving every day.â At TC, Sleeper learned about the âwhole childâ and how non-school factors shape learning. She has created the Carole L. Sleeper Endowed Scholarship in TCâs Department for students committed to public school teaching; contributed to the TC Fund and ¶¶Òőapp; and now endowed a scholarship in the . Sleeper strongly believes in public education and wants to improve it through TCâs Board and by meeting studentsâ financial needs: âI want to close the gap between the haves and the have nots. So I feel very comfortable with being able to give something away.â â Steve Giegerich
SEEKING CLOSURE âI want to close the gap between the haves and the have nots. So I feel very comfortable with being able to give something away.â â Carole Sleeper
A Trustee to Bet On
Education helped Laura Sloate beat tough odds. Now sheâs joining TCâs Board.
Laura Sloate
âI can do what anyone else can, just a little differently,â says new ¶¶Òőapp Trustee Laura Sloate. Well â no. Sloate, blind since she was six, does most things better than other people. After establishing herself on male-dominated Wall Street, she founded her own company and sold it to , where sheâs now a Managing Director. She serves on four charitable boards (âI want to help, not just sign a checkâ), works out daily (she used to run 75 flights of stairs in her building) and, thanks to Gizmo, her German shepherd seeing-eye dog, leaves fellow pedestrians in the dust. âHeâs incredibly smart,â she says. âWhen I sign a restaurant check, he gets up to leave.â A self-described information junkie who sleeps five hours per night, Sloate spends weekends reading up on everything from cookies to gene editing to robotic ships that can cross the ocean with no one aboard. âWall Street finances the future,â she says. Still, she credits her success to her mother, who had her home-tutored and then sent her to private school. âShe said, âYouâre my brilliant Jewish daughter, and you can do anything,â recalls Sloate, who graduated from Barnard and earned an M.A. in history at Columbia. Sloate joined TCâs board because âeducation is the key to helping people improve their positions in life, and an institution that educates educators has an even greater impact.â Sheâs interested in the Collegeâs work in learning technology, a hot field on Wall Street. Her advice to young people: Make your passion your career. âThere are bad days when I leave work depressed, but I come back raring to go. You canât do that if youâre not passionate. Iâm always looking forward to learning more and helping as much as I can.â â Joe Levine
STREET SMART âEducation is the key to helping people improve their positions in life, and an institution that educates educators has an even greater impact.â â Laura Sloate