The Stern Tutoring and Alternative Techniques for Education Program (STATE)

For Mickey and Debbie Stern, making generous gifts to organizations and causes whose ideals they support is more than a simple good deed, it is a life dedication of great significance. Fitting, then, is the fact that they have created the Max ("Mickey") and Judith ("Debbie") Stern Tutoring and Alternative Techniques for Education Program at Michigan State University through a gift of $400,000 to endow the fund.

Residents of Orchard Lake, Michigan, and owners of a thriving wholesale furniture business, Moss & Associates, Mickey and Debbie have formed a strong bond with the university. "For the past 30 years, Debbie and I have dedicated our lives to our family and our business," Mickey said, "but we have come to believe that the most profitable investment and the one that brings perhaps the greatest return, the highest honor and the most powerful sense of accomplishment is the investment of charity."

 

The Stern Tutoring Program is part of the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD) office which is part of the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and Services at MSU. Michael Hudson is the RCPD director. "Students with learning disabilities represent half of the over 850 students registered with the RCPD," Hudson explained. "As learning disabilities are generally invisible, many try to hide or deny the disability only to realize later that they may have underestimated other skills and strengths as they work to hide their disability. This gift from the Sterns fosters development of a new program of instructional, tutorial and peer mentoring that will enhance student skills around information processing. The effort will promote academic achievement, improved self-concept, and recognition of ability."

 

The gift of $400,000 is by far the largest ever received by RCPD. "While RCPD is a state and national leader in services for students with a range of disabilities, the Stern program pushes past traditional accommodation concepts and provides new disability-specific instructional, tutorial, and peer mentoring components," Hudson said. "This is a breakthrough development for students with learning disabilities!"

 

Mickey and Debbie Stern want to see important lessons learned from their generosity close to home as well. "We hope and pray that our children will follow in our footsteps, internalize our ideals and principles and recognize the importance of community service in giving to charitable causes," Mickey said. Hudson points out that MSU and the RCPD certainly recognize such a willingness to help and the hope that it gives for the future. "I am hopeful that this gift stirs the passions of others who may also step forward in support of important programs and services.

 

The generosity shown by the Stern family and others reminds me that there is more that each of us can do to accentuate opportunity at MSU."

The STATE program at MSU provides critical services to help students succeed at Michigan State University. If you are interested in making a gift, please contact the Student Services Advancement Office at (517) 355-7535 or make a gift online.