News
March 7, 2025518ElevatED Received $100,000 to fund the Burian Endowed Scholarship
518 ElevatED (formerly Capital Region Sponsor-A-Scholar) announced a transformational gift of $100,000 from the estate of the late Jarka and Grayce Burian that will fund a brand-new endowed scholarship for Capital Region high school students. The Jarka and Grayce Burian Endowed Scholarship will annually support, in perpetuity, one local high school graduate who desires to pursue the Arts in college.
Jarka “Jerry” Burian was a professor and chair of the theater department at the University of Albany, SUNY – and Grayce Burian was a theatre professor at SUNY Schenectady County Community College. In 2013, Grayce Burian published a memoir, “From Jerry to Jarka: A Breezy Memoir of a Long Peripatetic Marriage.” Grayce grew up in Boston during World War II and married Jarka in June of 1951. Jarka was born in New Jersey and was a first-generation American – the son of Czechoslovakian immigrants.
518ElevatED Executive Director, Peter Gabak said, “The entire 518ElevatED team remains profoundly moved by this thoughtful expression of both generosity of spirit and philanthropy. As you can imagine, it’s not every day when you open an envelope and learn that a $100,000 donation will come to support your organization’s mission and those it serves.” Gabak continued, “The Burians were deeply passionate educators who clearly understood that while they would not be around to see the benefits of their generosity, they squarely believed that this gift would lay a solid foundation for Capital Region youth who also shared their avocation in the Arts. The Burian Endowed Scholarship will be awarded at our annual Scholar Celebration that will take place on Thursday evening, June 12th at the Italian American Community Center.”
518ElevatED has 60+ high school students involved in our in-school, afterschool programming in Albany, Schenectady, and Troy high schools. We have 130 active college student scholars studying in 97 institutions of higher education across 17 states. 80% of students in our program identify as “First Generation” college-bound. In addition, 518Elevated boasts over 500 alumni of our program who reside in the Greater Capital Region. For more information on this scholarship, please contact: info@518elevated.org.
