Steven and Susan Woskow Scholarship

When Steven Woskow sold his business, Agtech Products, Inc., he and his wife Susan realized they were in a position to make a large charitable gift, and they wanted to make one that would have an impact. Advancement staff at Cal Lutheran introduced the couple to several options. The Woskows chose to create a charitable lead annuity trust naming CLU as the beneficiary. With such a trust, the original gift is invested and subsequently paid out over a specific time period (in this case, 10 years) to the beneficiary.

Steve and Susan had been residents of Thousand Oaks for several years. As a high school student Steve had worked on the CLU campus during summers when the Dallas Cowboys were training. The couple had earned degrees at Chico State, Utah State and Iowa State, and they knew the value of a good education. Susan was an accomplished physical therapist. Steve, with a Ph.D. in nutrition and food science from Iowa State, became a scientist in the agricultural industry. His company focused its research on solving problems and inefficiencies in animal production through agricultural biotechnology. Steve and Susan also shared a special fondness for race horses, and after they retired, they moved to Nevada to pursue this passion.

In making decisions regarding their trust, they agreed they wanted to create a scholarship. Next, they focused on how to structure it to accomplish their goals. Since getting a good education had been important to them both, they saw their gift as a way of making that same end possible for other serious students. They also knew that students sometimes find it difficult to reach their long-range goals because of accruing debt.

Understanding the importance of a college education and wanting to ensure that those who start college are able to complete their degrees, Steve and Susan chose to have the Steven and Susan Woskow Scholarship designated for upper-division or graduate-level students in order to make their postgraduate years less burdensome financially. Recipients must be U.S. citizens who maintain a 3.0 grade point average. The Woskows had the opportunity to meet recipients of their scholarship in May 2011 when the Steven and Susan Woskow Scholarship was awarded for the first time.