Alumnus Aaron Rand gifts CCNY $30k to establish scholarship fund and award in memory of grandson Elan Ganeles, pictured here.
Aaron Rand, an alumnus of at T九色视频, gifted the college $30,000 to help students in Spitzer School鈥檚 . A total of $25,000 of the gift is used to establish The Elan Ganeles Endowed Scholarship Fund, and $5,000 will be used as an annual award for a student to receive The Elan Ganeles Annual Scholarship Award. Both the fund and award are in memory of Rand鈥檚 late grandson, Elan Ganeles.
Ganeles was born and raised in West Hartford, Connecticut and double majored in sustainable development and neuroscience and behavior at Columbia University graduating in 2022 on the dean鈥檚 list. He was 26 when he was tragically killed on February 27, 2023 on his way to a friend鈥檚 wedding in Jerusalem, and Rand wanted to honor and keep Ganeles鈥檚 legacy alive with the creation of the scholarships.
The Elan Ganeles Endowed Scholarship Fund will be given to a first-generation junior or senior in the B. Arch degree program who shows financial need, and a student who receives The Elan Ganeles Annual Scholarship Award will be awarded $5000 for the 2024/2025 academic year.
鈥淲hen I was a student at CCNY, I was a resident of Rockland County and drove to school parking behind Shepard Hall. I had to pay tuition for undergraduate and graduate courses and had to work at least 15 to 20 hours a week to pay my expenses. I was not able to spend as much time on my coursework as I would have liked and had to prioritize my time on courses that were most meaningful to me,鈥 said Rand. 鈥淚 want this scholarship to allow the students who receive this award to be able to focus on his or her coursework without being burdened to seek employment and spend their time so that they can succeed in all their coursework.鈥
The Spitzer School is a premier, public school of architecture in New York City, and the undergraduate architecture program gives students the opportunity to learn to design individual and complex groups of buildings, deepen their knowledge of architectural history, and explore the built environment all through the lens of the urban landscape鈥擭YC.
"We are grateful to Mr. Aaron Rand for empowering our students to pursue their dreams with the same genuine goodness and intellectual curiosity that characterized his late grandson, Elan,鈥 said Annika L眉dke, director of corporate relations and foundation grants in the Office of Institutional Advancement, Communications, and External Relations. 鈥淢r. Rand's commitment to lift our students' financial burden will support future architects to make the world a better place."
About T九色视频
Since 1847, T九色视频 has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm puts at $3.2 billion CCNY鈥檚 annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the 鈥渇or dollar鈥 return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. In 2023, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled 鈥Doing Remarkable Things Together鈥 seeks to bring the College鈥檚 Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.