Alumni from Gannon University’s chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha (PKA) fraternity, the Epsilon Upsilon chapter, established an endowed scholarship that will benefit current fraternity members who maintain a 3.0 grade-point average. The Pi Kappa Alpha Endowed “Power” Scholarship will consist of $75,000 raised by the alumni of the Gannon PKA chapter that will be matched by the University under the provisions of the “Power” Scholarship Challenge.

The idea and planning was initiated at the chapter’s 50th anniversary celebration held last summer in Erie.
“The reunion was an opportunity for many of us to remember how the fraternity helped shape many of our lives,” said 1977 Gannon alumnus Bob Cheatle, chairman and president of Roberts Technology Group near Philadelphia.

“These were life-long friendships and the endowment will continue the great tradition of PKA at Gannon and help current students,” said Matt Hauser, Gannon class of 1977, who is president of Matthew J. Hauser & Associates, Inc., in Baltimore.

“I think we all reached a point in our careers where we attribute some of our success in life to the years at Gannon,” said Rich Beattie, a Gannon 1992 graduate and president of Mechanical Engineering and Construction Corporation of Baltimore. “Now is a good time to give back and help the next generation.”

Cheatle, Hauser and Beattie contributed to $60,000 of the $75,000 raised.

The scholarship endowed by the Gannon PKA is among the almost 200 scholarships at Gannon endowed by corporations, foundations, families and individuals. Last year, Gannon University awarded nearly $914,000 in scholarships to more than 400 deserving students from a diversity of locations, backgrounds and financial circumstances.

Combined with the dozens of scholarships given by the University itself, these awards reached 337 students last year. Approximately 97 percent of students at Gannon University receive some sort of scholarship award in the academic year just concluded.

Endowed gifts to Gannon can also help fund faculty positions, professorships, chairmanships, faculty excellence and study-abroad programs at the University.

For more information on the scholarship please contact Tony Fulgenzio, director of philanthropy at Gannon University, at 814-871-7786.