Dr. Mindy & Howard Kole Entrepreneurship in the Arts, Science and Business Scholarship in Memory of Isabel M. Hecht

The purpose of the Dr. Mindy & Howard Kole Entrepreneurship in the Arts, Science & Business Scholarship in Memory of Isabel M. Hecht is to provide scholarships for students who have engaged in entrepreneurship in the arts, science, or business. Established by Dr. Mindy Kole, Associate Dean of Adult Learning: Academic Affairs, and her husband Howard Kole, the $1,000 scholarship will be awarded annually to a SUNY Ulster student who has pursued entrepreneurship in the arts, sciences, or business by starting or planning to start a business or a student who has demonstrated an entrepreneurial mindset by thinking like an entrepreneur.

The scholarship honors the memory of Mindy’s mother, Isabel M. Hecht, who was a passionate and spirited artist, teacher and mother with a creative entrepreneurial mindset. Isabel was a successful elementary school teacher in the New York public school system and an art teacher for the Riverdale Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture, where she was an active member. She loved to write and wrote books of verse and drawings for her four grandchildren. The book she wrote for her granddaughter, Diana, has been passed along to Diana’s daughter, Izabella, who is named for her great-grandmother.

Isabel also composed a collection of poems about her battle and journey with breast cancer. In September 1987, Isabel was awarded a citation by the United Federation of Teachers when she used the Heimlich maneuver and revived a 5-year-old child who was choking. For her life-saving efforts, Isabel was recognized in New York newspapers. Mindy and Howard Kole are thrilled to provide this scholarship to a SUNY Ulster student-entrepreneur in Isabel M. Hecht’s honor and memory. Est. 2018