Dorothy Bergold (Wheelock\u201974, SSW\u201981) has had a relationship with the School of Social Work since graduation: as a member and then president of the school\u2019s Alumni Association Board, as the leader of a study trip to Cuba, and now as a field advisor for the school\u2019s online program.<\/p>\n
\u201cI may be the only person they meet from BU until graduation,\u201d she says of her advisees. \u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to be able to be that person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bergold feels privileged, too, to have had many meaningful jobs, in settings ranging from an inpatient psychiatric unit to pediatrics to hospice, in what she describes as a great career. She currently works part time in primary care at Massachusetts General Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m making a difference,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Bergold recently found another way to make a difference: by planning a bequest that will endow a scholarship at SSW.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the school has very limited resources for scholarships,\u201d she says, \u201cand the fact that it can be endowed and last forever is really moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ever the social worker, Bergold discusses her gift in terms she learned at BU, when a class on human behavior covered Erik Erikson\u2019s developmental theory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think about life stages, at the end of life, it\u2019s integrity vs. despair\u2014that\u2019s the Eriksonian stage,\u201d Bergold says. Aging isn\u2019t always easy, as she notes, but there are ways to meet it with grace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to cope by being grateful, and giving to BU is adding to that,\u201d Bergold says. \u201cThis is going to last forever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6730,"featured_media":2194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,20],"tags":[16,46,47],"featured_img":"\/alumni\/files\/2019\/12\/Dorothy-Bergold-800x600.jpg","agg_excerpt":"\u201cI feel like I\u2019m making a difference.\u201d","agg_title":"A donor speaks: growing old gratefully","media_icon":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6730"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2303,"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions\/2303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-responsi.cms-devl.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}