Donors Work to Alleviate Disparity

While in college, Paul Adamsbaum worked delivering music albums throughout different ethnic communities in each of New York’s five boroughs. During his runs, he forged friendships with shop owners and residents and grew to appreciate the opportunities and challenges faced in the neighborhoods he visited.

Decades later, Paul and his wife Dale retired to Tucson. They enjoyed local performing arts and sports but craved a deeper connection. When they decided to create a scholarship at UA, Paul recalled his time in New York.

“Owing to my experiences growing up in a city with mixed cultures, I understood that not everybody has the same opportunities,” he says.

In 2024 Paul and Dale used a gift that blends outright donations with a bequest from their estate to create the first-ever scholarship endowment in the College of Humanities Department of Africana Studies.

The first beneficiary of the Adamsbaum Family Endowed Award is pursuing a double major in Africana Studies and medicine. “The combination is great because there are a lot of disparities for black women in the medical world,” says sophomore Samia Hartley. “By understanding how those disparities developed, I can confront them.”

Hartley’s plans align perfectly with the Adamsbaums’ intent, adds Paul. “We want to empower scholars to use their education…to go out into the world and influence people.” Their planned gift will enable students to do just that for decades to come.