Nov 7, 2006 -- A group of alumnae from Stern College for Women who might not have been able to pursue careers in medicine and science if not for the Anne Scheiber Scholarship have decided to raise money to give back to the institution that made their dreams possible.

The Stern-Einstein Research Connection the women have created will fund a freshman or sophomore at Stern College for Women to do scientific research during the summer. The program is intended to give research experience to a young student who hasn’t had an opportunity to work in a lab and learn research techniques.

“It is often hard to get your foot in the door for that initial step,” explained Meredith Weiss, a Stern alumna and medical student at Einstein, who is a recipient of the Scheiber Scholarship.

The scholarship was endowed by Anne Scheiber upon her death and started distributing funds during the 2002-2003 school year. Undergraduates with financial need can qualify for scholarships up to full tuition at Stern to pursue degrees in science and medicine. Graduates of Stern College for Women who go on to study at Einstein can also qualify for up to a full scholarship, based on need. Both programs also stipulate that the students show leadership potential, initiative, or creative excellence and indicate a desire to help humanity through their studies.

“We wanted to have a mechanism to show our hakarat hatov (gratitude) to the memory of Ms. Scheiber, to Stern College for Women and to Albert Einstein College of Medicine for furthering our careers and dreams,” Ms. Weiss said.

The Miami Beach native sent a letter to other Scheiber Scholarship recipients during the summer, asking them to donate to the effort. She has raised half of the money needed to sponsor a freshman or sophomore researcher for the summer. The group is also looking to create an ongoing endowment to fund the Stern-Einstein Research Connection, to be certain that the program has enough funding to continue year after year. Additional donations can be sent to Joan Apple, 245 Lexington Ave., 14th floor, New York, NY, 10016.

“This is an opportunity to give back to the institution which helped direct our careers toward medicine, as well as provided us with a generous gift for this medical education,” Ms. Weiss said, adding that she might not have been able to pursue a medical career without the Scheiber scholarship.