It was through sheer determination and perseverance that Elyse Goldfarb Ruth, CLA ’71, became the first in her family to earn a college degree. Now, through a new scholarship fund, she is making sure students with the same drive and abilities have the help they need to go to Temple, regardless of their backgrounds or situations.

Six years after graduating from Philadelphia High School for Girls, Ruth knew her career options were few. She was working two jobs to support herself, her mother and her sister, and neither position promised any kind of growth. Ruth, for whom new challenges are as essential as fresh air, was suffocating.

That’s when family friend Philip Spergel, CLA ’56, ’59, EDU ’68, who was working toward his doctorate in education, told her about Temple. “He said to me, ‘You really need to start doing something with your life. Why don’t you take a course at night at Temple?’” Spergel—someone with whom Ruth would stay in contact for decades to come—helped her pick her first college course: "Cultural Anthropology."

“The course really opened things up for me,” she says. “I decided that, if things went well, I would try to find enough in student loans and financial aid so that I could stop working and start going to Temple full time.”

Finding the money presented a problem. Ruth found that most scholarships were available to students coming right out of high school. “There just didn’t seem to be anything at all for me,” she recalls. Finally, by securing student loans and continuing to work, she was able to begin attending school full time.

Ruth earned a degree in economics, magna cum laude. She was hired by the IRS, first as a tax auditor, and later in the Office of International Operations and as a program analyst. “And when that turned into a dead end, I decided to do what I had done once before so successfully: Quit work and go to college full time.” Always pushing herself, Ruth earned her juris doctor from the University of Virginia and began work as a tax attorney in Los Angeles.

Today, Ruth credits Temple with opening a door to her future success. To help others achieve their potential, she has established a full-tuition scholarship fund to benefit talented, motivated students who are returning to formal education after an absence of seven years or more.

“I wanted to help somebody like myself: somebody who has everything they need to succeed in college, but doesn’t have the tuition,” she explains. “I hope that they’ll give back to Temple as I want to give back to Temple.”

Recently retired from law but driven as ever, Ruth now seeks out personally rewarding challenges, such as learning to play the piano—a lifelong goal. She also stays very active, and in the past several months made a trip to Alaska’s farthest reaches and took a two-day bicycle trip around Lake Tahoe.

Of her recent gift to the university—a gift that pushed Temple past the $300 million mark in its Access to Excellence campaign—Ruth says she’s just returning the favor.

“Temple certainly came through for me when I needed it. I’m glad I can come through for Temple now.”