Ivy Tech Grads Benefit from Blended Gift Scholarship

As Vice President of an auto dealership in Evansville, Indiana, Sharon Laine Duell hired many Ivy Tech graduates. Now the entrepreneur is saying thanks with a blended gift to Ivy Tech: a planned gift in her will funded through her IRA that will supplement the scholarship she previously established. “I want to make an investment in students who are pursuing careers in the automotive industry, and Ivy Tech has a superb automotive training program,” Sharon said.

Sharon established the Donald L. Duell Memorial Scholarship in memory of her father-in-law, who spent his career in car dealerships and inspired his son David—Sharon’s late husband—to open the first individually owned Chrysler dealership in the Evansville region. It evolved into a 5-star dealership that has hired many Ivy Tech grads, and David served as an Ivy Tech trustee. Sharon and David were married for 45 years.

Employees of the current dealerships, Duell’s Evansville KIA Mazda Volvo and Evansville Hyundai, make gifts to the scholarship fund each year as their Christmas gift to Sharon and her son Doug, who now serves as dealership president. The dealerships match that contribution.

Sharon established the scholarship in recognition of the perseverance that students must have to succeed. She was the first in her family to graduate from college, taking 17 years to complete her degree in history and another eight years to earn her master’s degree in liberal studies, both from the University of Southern Indiana.

“I want to pay it forward and help students on their path to achieving their goals,” she said. “Ivy Tech is committed to student success.”