{"id":57429,"date":"2021-08-23T13:25:15","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T17:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/?post_type=r_cas_magazine&#038;p=57429"},"modified":"2021-10-12T09:21:01","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T13:21:01","slug":"why-i-give-2","status":"publish","type":"r_cas_magazine","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/arts-sciences\/fall-2021\/why-i-give-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Give"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\n.feature.post-item .post-media {\n    background-position: center 20%;\n}\n<\/style>\n<p class=\"banner-caption\">Aaron Jay Polak (CAS\u201987, LAW\u201993) and his wife, Karyn (LAW\u201994), recently endowed a $100,000 scholarship in the name of his mother, Ruth Getter (GRS\u201983), a pioneering economist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"byline\">By Thea Singer | Photo by SHAWN HUBBARD<\/p>\n<h2>A path to equal opportunity<\/h2>\n<p>In 1987, Ruth Getter (GRS\u201983) left the Boston area and moved to Toronto\u2014with no job, no place to live\u2014to be closer to family. She soon landed an entry-level position as a researcher at TD Bank; within seven years, she\u2019d risen to VP and chief economist, the first woman to hold that position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mom was a self-starter, the first in her family to go to college, and a self-professed lifelong student,\u201d says her son, Aaron Jay Polak. Getter\u2019s pioneering journey took her from studying genetics and math as an undergraduate to cracking a Canadian bank\u2019s glass ceiling. And, along the way, she also earned a BU doctorate in economics while raising two kids.<\/p>\n<p>Polak (CAS\u201987, LAW\u201993), who runs his own law firm specializing in medium and growing businesses in the technology, health, and creative sectors, counts his independent streak among his late mother\u2019s many influences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe BU PhD was her third degree, and it was in a completely different field from her first two degrees,\u201d he says. \u201cI learned from her that we need to ensure women have equal opportunity to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Polak and his wife, Karyn (LAW\u201994), recently endowed a $100,000 scholarship in Getter\u2019s name in the BU Department of Economics. It honors her legacy as a trailblazer in the field and aims to support women graduate students at BU following in her footsteps.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to do something that she would be remembered by, something she valued,\u201d says Polak. \u201cI think her most transformative experiences were at BU, not just because of the academics and professors, but because of the lifelong friends she made\u2014many of them international students. It was a long haul for her; I saw her studying all the time, and it took her four years to do her thesis because she was also working then, as a consultant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He hopes her story, and rise to become a noted economist, can be an inspiration to others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe world has changed a lot since my mom was a student,\u201d says Polak. But some things, he notes, have not changed enough: according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/women-in-economics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/WiE_Index_2020.pdf\">international 2020 Women in Economics Index<\/a>, only 9 percent of the chief economists at large banks are women. Polak and his wife want to carry forth Getter\u2019s dedication to education and equal opportunity with this gift.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe feel very strongly that to the extent you can support an underrepresented group, that\u2019s what you should do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p><em>Please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/alumni\/giving\/\">bu.edu\/cas\/alumni\/giving<\/a> or contact Meghan Frost, CAS assistant dean, at <a href=\"mailto:mmfrost@bu.edu\">mmfrost@bu.edu<\/a> or 617-358-6376 to learn more about giving to CAS.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aaron Jay Polak (CAS\u201987, LAW\u201993) and his wife, Karyn (LAW\u201994), recently endowed a $100,000 scholarship in the name of his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","department":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-articles\/57429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/r_cas_magazine"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-articles\/57429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57461,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-articles\/57429\/revisions\/57461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"r_cas_department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=57429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}