Elin Danien

Last week, my thirty-year old son Gabriel married his longtime love. The wedding announcement that appeared in Sunday's NEW YORK TIMES mentioned my book; and because the TIMES has international circulation, I heard from people all over the world.

One of the women who wrote me was 77-year old Elin Danien, the founder of BREAD UPON THE WATERS, a unique scholarship program for non-traditional students at the University of Pennsylvania. (She's pictured above receiving a "Hometown Hero" award in November of 2005 from the Philadelphia 76ers.)

Here's what I discovered about the program when I went to its description on the UPenn website:

Bread Upon the Waters is the only scholarship of its kind -- specifically designed to benefit women over the age of 30 who wish to complete an undergraduate degree through part-time study at the University of Pennsylvania.

[The organization] was founded in 1986 by Elin Danien, a graduate of Penn's College of General Studies. Elin enrolled as a freshman at the age of 46 and graduated seven years later summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Her academic awakening and positive experience as an older woman student led her to establish a scholarship fund to help other nontraditional students realize their dreams.

According to Elin's note, the program has 60 graduates--33 of them with honors. Twenty-five women take courses each year. At age 68, Elin herself earned a PhD in anthropology. She asked me to give her a call so that she could tell me the story in her own words.

Stay tuned for more details about this wonderful woman and her on-going work.

* Photo Credit: Jesse D. Garrabrant NBAE/Getty Images

Bread Upon the Waters

Kimberly Lynch might never have enrolled at UPenn were it not for Bread Upon the Waters, an innovative scholarship program for women over 30 who seek to earn Penn degrees by studying part time.

(That's Bread founder Elin Danien in the photo above.)

Lynch remembers telling Rhea Mandell, a former Bread coordinator, “I don’t even know why I’m here. Even if I get into the [College of General Studies] program, I have five small children, and there’s no way I can afford to go here.”

But with Mandell’s encouragement to apply and Bread to help finance her studies, Lynch accepted Penn's offer of admittance.

On the way to earnng a degree in biology, Lynch developed “a DNA-sequencing procedure that, for the first time, enabled scientists to detect whether outbreaks of infections caused by the potentially harmful bacterium listeria monocytogenes involve the same strain.”

Today, she's a director of oncology services for a medical-education company.

Lynch's amazing story appears in the Spring 2007 issue of Penn Arts & Sciences Magazine. Click here to read the article.


NOTE: The photo above and quotes from this posting are taken directly from the article. To learn more about Bread founder Elin Danien, a late bloomer in her own right, see my October 18, 2006 posting.

Back To School After 50: Six Tips

It's all about connections. 

Vibrant Nation, a site where smart, successful women over 50 connect with one another, recently picked up my blog entry on Elin Danien, going so far as to name her their "Vibrant Giver for January." Elin in turn began writing for the site.  Here's a link to her newest post and the 6 tips (click on the site to read Elin's explanation for each):

Back to school after 50: 6 tips - Vibrant Nation  (posted using ShareThis)

1. Investigate all possible funding sources.
2. If you have kids, do it for them.
3. If you're married, having a supportive husband is wonderful, but not essential.
4. Find a mentor.
5. University staff get breaks on tuition.
6. Volunteering can get you on the inside track.

I continue to be amazed at the power of the Internet to connect people and spread ideas, and when a site such as Vibrant Nation picks up one of my pieces and then I'm able to link back to one of theirs--that's pure pleasure.

More Late Bloomers

My friend and fellow gravity-defier Elin Danien (photo above), the founder of Bread Upon the Waters, a UPenn scholarship fund for non-traditional-age women, just sent me an update.

She writes:  “To date, 73 women have earned bachelor’s degrees through Bread, many of them graduating with honors and going on to graduate studies while juggling careers and family obligations.”

This year's crop of scholars include: 

Kimberly B., a single mother working toward a B.A. in English who recently gave up her job as a school bus driver to work as a freelance copywriter. 

Elizabeth S., a Humane Society Police Officer who aims to earn a Ph.D. in forensic anthropology.