Salve Regina receives $12 million from Wallace Foundation to expand business learning

Salve Regina has received a $12 million gift from the Jean and David W. Wallace Foundation, which focuses on creating innovative experiences in business with the naming of the Jean and David W. Wallace Department of Business and Economics. It also supports the creation of the Anita and Robert R. Young Department Chair within the newly named department.

The department endowment will be used to expand business student and faculty participation in conferences, competitions, economic impact studies and entrepreneurial initiatives, and to fund new experiential learning opportunities for all students at the University through the Salve Compass program.

The gift is the latest of many from the Wallace Foundation, the University’s most generous benefactor, with donations of more than $24.6 million that span generations. Naming the Jean and David W. Wallace Department of Business and Economics honors that ongoing support. The business and economics program is one of the University’s fastest growing, serving the largest number of majors, 27% of the student body.

In naming the department chair, the Wallace Foundation honors the role that Anita and Robert R. Young, neighbors to Salve’s historic campus, played in establishing the special relationship between Salve Regina and the Wallace family and encouraging their active role in the University’s evolution.

Anne Wallace Juge, a Salve Regina trustee, and Mary Wallace Strizek, foundation co-presidents, designed the gift specifically to honor their parents’ love of Salve Regina and their commitment to the University’s mission to provide students with the values and skills needed to make a positive difference in the world.

“We are grateful to recognize our parents and the Youngs together with Salve’s expanding business and economics department,” Juge said. “It is an honor to be serving on the Salve board.”

“Our father considered Robert Young a dear friend and mentor, and our families remained close throughout their lives,” Strizek said. “We are so pleased to honor them together in this way at Salve and know they would be proud to be part of the accomplishments of new generations of Salve students.”

In addition to the expansion of programs within the David W. Wallace Department of Business and Economics, the Wallace family’s recent gift supported initial strategic planning, design and launch of the Salve Compass program. This signature experience spans all four years in which every student learns the skills and knowledge to succeed in college and the job market, with a focus on hands-on, real-world experiences.

“The value of the Wallace family’s gifts to the University cannot be overstated. We would not be where we are without them,” said Kelli J. Armstrong, Salve Regina president. “This latest gift will help us strengthen the business and economics department with lecture series, scale up our experiential learning, support faculty projects and stay up to date on the needs our students will fill for communities when they graduate. It positions us to provide opportunities that build real-world readiness for all.”