Maura Keenan Creates Bequest to Enrich Ithaca Experience for Future Student-Athletes

Maura Keenan ’93 sees a direct connection between her athletic experience at Ithaca and the success she has enjoyed in her career and life. That’s why she is ensuring future students have similar opportunities through a bequest supporting the college’s women’s basketball and softball programs.

The youngest of ten children, Maura says her family was “pretty broke by the time I came around,” meaning she needed financial assistance to leave her home in Connecticut and attend Ithaca. Thanks to grants and awards based on her high school academic achievement and aid based on financial need, she was able to make Ithaca her college home.

As a student-athlete, Maura discovered “lifelong relationships and friendships that I value tremendously,” she says. “I want that to continue for another 100 years for other students to have that experience.”

Maura says a bequest is a wonderful planned gift because it creates maximum future impact while costing nothing today.

“You can make a gift that you might not otherwise be able to do during your living years,” she says, adding she hopes her bequest will fund “next-level” experiences—such as travel and special educational events—for the young women playing basketball and softball for Ithaca in the future.

Maura encourages her fellow alumni to join her in making a planned gift.

“It’s something to certainly consider—impacting young lives and allowing the opportunities that we had at Ithaca to continue for them,” she says. “It’s just a wonderful way to leave a legacy.”