The CSU Foundation is proud to serve our students and University, helping to ensure that the promise of success and accomplishment becomes reality.
The CSU Foundation is proud to serve our students and University, helping to ensure that the promise of success and accomplishment becomes reality.
Radiance celebrates over $3 million raised for student success initiatives
May 12, 2022
On May 11, after three years, Radiance, Cleveland State University’s premier fundraising event, returned to the campus ballroom to...
Today’s students will one day join a talent pool and workforce that includes thousands of CSU graduates who have been influencing and advancing society’s collective good for the better part of 50 years.
Destigmatizing postpartum depression
It was only when Eugenia Sweet’s coworkers suggested that she was suffering from postpartum depression that she sought help....
Your support helps alleviate the pressures that can cause some of our students to simply give up, only a few short steps away from obtaining a college degree.
Living a life of service
The lightbulb went on for Lina Billings when she walked in the big arena, the ceiling draped in fine...
Thank you for investing in our students. Your support is transforming lives, igniting hope and pulling dreams within reach.
When CSU senior Ellen Rea got word that she had landed a job at GE Aviation as an aerospace engineer after graduation, it was the realization of a pursuit that she’d worked hard to achieve.
“I was so happy when I found out,” she beamed.
As a child, the engineering major would fit her dolls with parachutes and drop them off the roof to determine how to minimize damage. And in high school, when she shadowed a mechanical engineer, she was certain what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
And that became a singular focus for her.
She took classes at CSU as a post-secondary student but wasn’t sold on attending the school for college. A little encouragement from her mother, however, helped her to make her decision.
“I picked CSU and I am so happy that I did.”
Ellen was awarded a scholarship from both the Mandel Honors College and the Washkewicz College of Engineering covering all of her tuition.
“Once I was in school, because I had the scholarships, I was able to focus 100 percent of my energy on becoming a great engineer.”
After her freshman year, she took the unconventional route of pursuing her first co-op, typically reserved for engineering students’ sophomore year.
“I was like ‘No, I think I’m ready,’ so I found a place that would have me.”
She followed that rotation the next year at a company where she’d spend two summers, learning management styles and rubbing shoulders with higher ups.
The following fall, her senior year, she learned that all her work had finally paid off when she got the job at GE Aviation in a suburb of Cincinnati.
“Everything I did here [at CSU] was focused on getting a good job,” she said.
“I was able to do that without worrying about paying tuition…”
Ellen capped her time at CSU leading the CSU Fluid Power Vehicle team to a national championship, working with an engineering professor to build a virtual weather drone and earning the distinction of being named the university valedictorian.
“CSU has given me a lot of opportunities I wouldn’t have anywhere else,” she laughs.
“I love this school.”
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Whether you are making a financial contribution, volunteering your time, or providing internships and cooperative education experiences for our students, you are helping make a great University even better.
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