ITHACA, N.Y.—Applause and cheers from community members filled the Greater Ithaca Activity Center gym (GIAC), as Leslyn McBean-Clairborne, at points overwhelmed with emotion, announced the launch of the William “Max” Maxwell Internship Program on Sept. 21.
Created in honor of William Maxwell, a former professor at Cornell University, the internship program provides opportunities in areas like education, technology and politics, as well as trades programs. Mike Zak, one of Maxwell’s former students, donated a $250,000 endowment to the program through the Community Foundation of Tompkins County.
The program also received additional personal donations from others, including Maxwell and Zak. McBean-Clairborne said total donations for the program amount to roughly $350,000.
The GIAC hosted a luncheon for the induction of the program and provided free food and refreshments to everyone who attended the ceremony.
McBean-Clairborne spoke about GIAC’s internship program history and how the new program and donations will extend help to more students. Prior to the program, McBean-Clairborne said the lack of funds made it difficult for the center to provide multiple internships to students at the time.
“I fell on my knees and there were tears falling,” McBean-Clairborne said. “We really have been rubbing pennies and picking pieces and every year, we would place at least one person somewhere when we have four or five who are saying we can use an internship. So it is making the biggest difference already for us.”
Maxwell, who is also a longtime lifeguard and pool manager at GIAC, said he appreciates the honor and looks forward to seeing the impact it has on the community.
“This is for career opportunities, not just college,” Maxwell said. “We need good tradesmen with good wages to replace the workforce that we have now and there’s no reason why the people in this community couldn’t do that.”
Zak spoke about the impact Maxwell had on his life. Zak said when he was an undergrad at Cornell University he needed an endorsement from a faculty member because he wanted to pursue an academic program that was outside his engineering program. After getting rejected by multiple professors, Maxwell eventually gave him a recommendation, which Zak said he will forever be grateful for.
“I had no reputation, no credibility,” Zak said. “All I had was a proposal that others had already said was wacky and I wanted him to put his reputation and credibility on the line by endorsing a degree program. That was clearly a risk. There wasn’t anything in it for him […] He was the guy willing to take a chance on an unknown kid. Because I think in his mind, that was the right thing to do.”
George Ferrari, chief executive officer of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, said he is happy to support donors like Zak who work to build and improve the Tompkins County community.
“We talked with the Community Foundation about being in the forever business,” Ferrari said. “You’re also in this because you’re understanding from whence you came, people who were before you, our ancestors who made this work possible, and you look forward into the future for opportunity.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly represented the size and sources of the funding for the program, and the name of Mike Zak was misspelled as Zack.