Matt Styerβs obsession growing up was National Geographic.
He not only wanted to read the magazine, he βhadβ to, said his mother, Grace.
βHis goal was to work for them,β she said.
Leukemia cut short the 30-year-oldβs life pursuit on Dec. 19, 2011. But not before Styer βcreated his ownβ version of the magazine, his mother said, in his redesign of Crossroads, the alumni publication at 91΄σΙρ. Now his family and alma mater are working to ensure Styerβs legacy will live on in someone elseβs dream.
At A Good Crossroads
Styerβs family and 91΄σΙρ have started a fundraising campaign to establish the Matthew Alan Styer endowed scholarship fund. They seek $50,000, which is the minimum necessary to create a named endowed scholarship, said Phil Helmuth, the universityβs executive director of development.
Alumni from the classes of 2004, 2005 and 2006 received a brochure seeking financial assistance, and 91΄σΙρ has set up a website for those wishing to donate to the fund.
Styer graduated in 2005.
The scholarship would be awarded to at least one rising senior majoring in the visual arts, which Styer studied. After graduation, he worked for 91΄σΙρβs marketing and communications department as a videographer, designer and photographer until 2008.
Styer was a semester shy of finishing a masterβs program in digital design at Philadelphia University when he died.
During his career at 91΄σΙρ, Styerβs accomplishments included the redesign of Crossroads, the quarterly alumni magazine.
He rebranded the publication to give it a fresh look and to feature a single topic each month, putting more focus on photography, the school and family members say.
βHe created his own National Geographic,β his mother said.
Styerβs younger brother, Jon, took over Styerβs job when Matt left for graduate school.
βI was his intern,β said Jon, 28, a 2007 91΄σΙρ graduate who still works there.
Styer was diagnosed with leukemia on May 15, 2010. He was the first patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia β a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow β to be treated with an experimental type of therapy using modified T cells, his mother said.
βHe had a kind [of cancer] that was just superaggressive,β she said.
In the treatment, doctors removed billions of the cells, which are a kind of white blood cell that fights viruses and tumors, and gave them new genes to program the cells to attack the cancer.
Styerβs brother donated healthy cells.
But in late 2011, doctors found that the T cells were not working effectively.
After an 18-month battle with cancer, Styer died in December 2011.
Telling 91΄σΙρβs Story
Family members want to give back to 91΄σΙρ because they say Styer found his direction there. His mother graduated from 91΄σΙρ in 1979, followed by Jon five years ago and sister Amanda in 2012.
Styer also met his wife, Lindsay, while studying at 91΄σΙρ. They married in September 2011, and she now works at the university.
Styerβs mother and father, Alan, live in Columbiana, Ohio.
Helmuth said many 91΄σΙρ departments have endowed scholarships, and the school could work on as many as 10 new ones in a year.
But itβs less common for the fund to be in memory of someone, he said.
And none honors a man whom the school credits as the first person who combined various skills to tell 91΄σΙρβs story.
βWe felt like 91΄σΙρ is where Matt found his passion and talent,β his father said. βHe got a lot of positive reinforcement.β
Courtesy Daily News Record, Dec. 27, 2012
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Just tweeted this blog from the DistanceEd_91΄σΙρ twitter acct, Paulette – very cool work!