Morgantown businessman Albino “Pizza Al” Roperti and his daughter, Rachel Roberti, have endowed a scholarship in memory of their late wife and mother Rosarina “Rose” Roperti.
The family has pledged $25,000 to fund the Rosarina Roperti Research Scholarship in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences of West Virginia University. The gift will support undergraduate and graduate students participating in ongoing medical research alongside biology, chemistry, or physics.
“My parents came to Morgantown 48 years ago. They fell in love with the town, and it has given them a lot of good things, so they wanted to give back,” Roberti says. “My mom was big-hearted, a big giver, and we wanted to give something in her honor to WVU because she believed in education and any student who needed help she loved to support.”
The family’s gift will help pave the way for students interested in expanding their education beyond the traditional classroom experience. Scholarship support will allow students to work with the Eberly College’s top faculty on innovative projects with the potential to make valuable contributions to medical research.
“We thought in the future with more research, maybe something can be accomplished,” Roberti says. “You never know what the future holds. We were shocked when [Rose Roperti fell ill in 2011] very unexpectedly, and thought that supporting research through a scholarship might be able to make a difference.”
This contribution was made in conjunction with A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia’s University. The $750 million comprehensive campaign, which is being conducted by the WVU Foundation on behalf of the University, runs through December 2015.
For further information on the comprehensive campaign, please visit http://www.astateofminds.com or http://www.eberly.wvu.edu.
For more information, contact associate director of development Amanda Dymacek, at (304)293-9251 or Amanda.Dymacek@mail.wvu.edu.
