Graphic Design Senior Receives New Landrum & Brown Scholarship

The best way that University of Cincinnati grad Doug Goldberg could think of to honor the long and distinguished career of a fellow Bearcat was to endow a UC scholarship to benefit today’s students.

And that’s why Goldberg, a 1985 graduate of the

Carl H. Linder College of Business

, recently provided for a scholarship to be awarded in honor of Jeffrey N. Thomas, also an alumnus of UC’s business college, having graduated in 1967.

The occasion for the scholarship was to mark Thomas’ 45-year anniversary with

Landrum & Brown

, a global leader in airport and aviation planning, where he is chief executive officer. Goldberg is with the same company, where he began his career as a UC

co-op

student and today serves as its Global Strategic Projects Director.

To that end, the new Landrum & Brown Jeffrey N. Thomas Endowed Scholarship Fund at UC will support an annual “In the Arena” scholarship award. The scholarship name refers to an address by Theodore Roosevelt in which he stated: “It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better – the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again; but who does actually strive to do deeds… .”

Explains Goldberg, “The establishment of this scholarship provides an ongoing reminder to students, for years to come, of the value of pursuing one’s dreams with passion and commitment despite obstacles and challenges. This is the message so many of us have learned while working with Jeff. This scholarship will help keep that message alive. We hope students will be inspired by Jeff’s story to ‘dare mighty things,’ as Jeff was inspired by Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘Man in the Arena’ speech.”

The first beneficiary of the new $2,500 Landrum & Brown Scholarship was recently named: Rachel Lee, 21, a fourth-year student in UC’s graphic design program in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (

DAAP

). Lee, of St. Louis, Mo., won the award by meeting the requirements that the recipient must have had a

UC Forward

experience and have a demonstrated interest in the aviation industry.

Lee had previously had two cooperative education terms in UC’s

Live Well Collaborative

where she contributed to projects for Live Well member Boeing, Inc.

That project helped her to learn about challenges facing the aviation industry and to contribute to potential solutions. She explains, “While there were opportunities to learn about very specific challenges facing the aviation industry and to contribute research and ideas in meeting them, I would also say that the projects on behalf of Boeing also helped me to appreciate the power of design research and the importance of always keeping your client or audience in mind.”

She adds that the new Landrum & Brown Scholarship has made a significant difference to her studies this year, given the heavy academic load in DAAP combined with the fact that she also works part time. “The scholarship has helped me to focus on school and has been valuable in taking some financial pressure off,” Lee states.

According to Goldberg, that was just the award’s purpose: Not only to honor Thomas but to “support the next generation of bold-thinking, aviation-focused entrepreneurs.”