Donor Encourages Excellence With Life Insurance Gift
USN was pleased to recently learn that Teri Doochin Kasselberg '73 has named the school as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy. The school is on her short list of most important causes, and she trusts University School to use the money wisely.
Teri's ties to University School date back to her days as a student at Peabody Demonstration School. She came to PDS when she was in seventh grade. Much has changed on Edgehill Avenue since the fall of 1967, but Teri has no trouble recognizing qualities of her old school in the one where her youngest child, Megan, is now an eighth-grader.
Then, as now, students had a voice. "You don't just have a script given to you every day. You get guidance, but independence is part of the learning process here," Teri says.
She also recalls the diversity of Peabody and the sense of the community in the school. "Those values are still very much here today," she says. Most importantly, the school still has "really caring teachers."
Teri has been a USN parent since her son, Matthew Wolf '99, started kindergarten in 1985. Soon after her daughter Andrea Wolf graduated in 2002, Megan entered kindergarten.
Every Gift Matters
Teri also serves on the Board of Trustees, a role that helps her understand how USN manages its resources. Knowing "how the money is spent," as she puts it, was a factor in her decision to make a gift to USN.
"I see what every gift means to the school. Compared to other good schools, USN knows how to spend money very carefully," she says. "It also needs money for its endowment. For the school to be strong for the next generation, we need more givers."
For Teri, the right way to help USN was with a life insurance policy. This policy allows her to make a bigger gift than she could manage if she just gave the school money now.
"We've gone from survival to excellence, and in order to continue, more people need to be part of the process," she says. Teri hopes that more people will consider making a planned gift to University School.