SUNY ESF
Alumna Gives Back to ESF to Support Underrepresented Students

Gail Terzi '80 was alone, hundreds of miles from her family and friends when she arrived at the ESF campus in the early summer of 1978.

"I was 22 years old. I had packed up my VW Bug and moved from South Florida to freezing New York. I was scared and alone in Syracuse," Terzi said recently from her home on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound. "But I can't tell you how easy it turned out to be. I found a place to live and I got a work-study job. I felt blessed that everyone was so nice and friendly. Everyone just wanted it to work for me."

Although Central New York was new to Terzi, she saw her enrollment at ESF as a return to her roots. She had lived in a New York City suburb for most of her childhood until her family moved to Florida. She returned to her home state to study environmental science after earning an associate's degree in Florida. She felt embraced by the ESF community, where administrators helped her find grants to erase some of her college loans, and professors taught her the chemistry and entomology that enthralled her.

Terzi graduated with honors. She did chemical ecology research at Cornell University and research on insect hormones at the University of Washington before moving into a position with the Seattle District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Washington state. It gave her a chance to do the fieldwork she had loved during summers at ESF's Cranberry Lake Biological Station and the Newcomb Campus in the Adirondacks.

The Army Corps of Engineers worked closely with the Washington State Department of Ecology to improve wetland mitigation practices; Terzi was program manager for 20 years. She worked with a team that developed regulations governing the construction and placement of new wetlands across the state, and the way the state administered the credit/debit method that helps calculate whether a proposed wetland mitigation project adequately replaces the values and functions lost when wetlands are affected by construction and development.

"Our program was hugely successful and set a lot of standards for the U.S.," Terzi said. "It was a fantastic career."

Now retired and still indulging her love for the outdoors with twice-yearly backpacking trips, Terzi wanted to give back to ESF. "I'm giving back to my alma mater because I wouldn't be where I am without ESF embracing me," she said.

In particular, she wants others - particularly members of underrepresented populations - to feel as welcome as she did on campus. "Whether they need a leg up in science, if they are women, people of color, LGBTQI or economically disadvantaged, I wanted my money to do something for somebody now," she said.

When she learned that making a charitable gift - in the form of a stock transfer - to the College had certain tax benefits, Terzi decided to act. She established the Gail Terzi Scholarship Fund to support underrepresented students and made further provisions for an additional gift to ESF through her estate planning.

"The opportunities that the College gave me - I'll never forget that. It cleared the path for me to become a successful scientist and have a successful career," Terzi said. "I feel like I've had a really blessed life and I wanted to pay that forward with setting up the scholarship."