WORTH SUPPORTING
Evalyn Milman '60, center, and Stephen Milman '58, MBA '59, left, at the 2006 celebration of the establishment of the Stephen and Evalyn Milman Professorship in American Studies, which named Professor Mary Katzenstein, right, to the post. See larger image
New endowment will benefit the study of early childhood development
Children have always fascinated Evalyn Edwards Milman '60, who first studied child development and family relationships as an undergraduate at Cornell and then continued as a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University, on her way to becoming a teacher, a mother and now a proud grandmother.
"This really was my first love, my focus," she says. "Young children are learning every minute of the day and using their problem-solving skills."
Milman recently translated her first love into a philanthropic legacy by endowing the Evalyn Edwards Milman Assistant Professorship in Early Childhood Development in the College of Human Ecology. "Early childhood" refers to the period from infancy through second grade.
Her gift of $2 million will make it possible for the college to recruit and retain up-and-coming scholars, says Alan Mathios, the James C. and Rebecca Q. Morgan Dean of Human Ecology.
"The study of child development is a core part of our mission, and it is increasingly interdisciplinary in scope," he says. "To have Evalyn Milman step forward with this gift is absolutely wonderful because it will allow us to continue building our faculty at a critical time."
Milman, whose gift coincides with her class's 50th reunion, says that is precisely her hope.
"This is one facet, the human ecology school, where I really feel I want to make a difference," she says. "It is important to know how the young child learns mathematics, reading, art and music, especially in the digital age. I hope this position attracts the best and brightest scholars."
She and her husband, Stephen Milman '58, MBA '59, have made a number of significant gifts to Cornell. They have established a professorship in American studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. They support a seminar given every other year on baseball and American culture, currently given by Glenn C. Altschuler, the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies.
They have also endowed an acquisition fund for the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and are regular supporters of the Annual Fund.
"We certainly have a love for Cornell," she says, "and joy in seeing all the development of the different schools within the university."