The way Ruth Scheer sees it, students need emotional support just as much as they need financial backing. “Everyone needs a friend,” she notes. “Particularly in an art school, where many students come from different places and different cultural backgrounds.”

So when Scheer and her husband decided to fund a Medici Scholarship for a student from Turkey, they set out to provide more than just financial support.

“We’ve developed a very close relationship with Deniz,” says Scheer. “We’ve invited him to Thanksgiving dinner, and we met his father when he visited the United States for the first time last spring. It’s a wonderful example of the value of friendships that cross generational lines.”

“Helping foster Deniz’s dreams and his passion means everything to us,” she adds.

For Scheer, funding a Medici Scholarship is just one component of a long and rewarding association with the Museum School. She has served on the School’s visiting committee and as a member and then chair of its Board of Governors; today, she’s an honorary lifetime governor and a member of the School’s Medici Group.

Over the years, Scheer’s involvement has provided a number of rewards. She helped the School define its relationship with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and she saw to fruition the conversion of the old Donnelly Sign Company building into graduate studios. But it’s the ongoing interaction with students and faculty that she finds most fulfilling.

“It’s a particular joy to get to know the faculty,” she says. “They are committed in ways that are unimaginable sometimes. The faculty provide a clear demonstration that money really isn’t everything.”