New scholarship honors late Gabe Zimmerman

Community Partnership of Southern Arizona (CPSA) has donated $100,000 to ASU's School of Social Work, in the College of Public Programs, to establish an endowed scholarship honoring Gabe Zimmerman, who graduated in 2006 with a master's degree in social work.

The donation will be combined with a contribution from ASU to provide scholarships benefitting students enrolled in the School of Social Work’s Tucson component. Zimmerman was one of six people killed in the Jan. 8 Tucson shootings.

"Gabe was a good friend to CPSA and a dedicated champion of the public behavioral health system," said Neal Cash, president and chief executive officer of CPSA. "We think the best way to honor Gabe's impact in this community is to help make sure his work continues, through the new social workers trained under this scholarship.”

“ASU is an institution mandated to serve the public and its College of Public Programs aims to produce graduates committed to improving their communities through leadership and public service," said ASU President Michael M. Crow. "Gabe Zimmerman embodied this ideal, and we want to encourage others to follow his example by making scholarship resources available, in perpetuity, for students who choose to pursue training in social work. ASU is contributing additional support to the CPSA gift to pay tribute to Gabe’s extraordinary life and work and to enhance the positive impact our graduates make on Arizona’s communities.”

Zimmerman also served as a field instructor for the Tucson program, helping others in their social work training. He, then, began working as a community outreach director for Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

“We at the School of Social Work are extremely grateful to Community Partnership of Southern Arizona for this generous gift," said Steven Anderson, director of the School of Social Work. "I could not think of a more fitting tribute to Gabe Zimmerman, who not only graduated from our Tucson Program Component, but continued to mentor our social work students in Tucson as his career progressed. We are very proud of his work in the community and service to our school, and know that this gift will allow others interested in community-based social work to follow his path.”

A scholarship committee will choose the first recipients who will begin receiving the scholarship for the 2011 semester. The School of Social Work’s Tucson component has had a presence in Tucson since the mid-1960s and currently enrolls approximately 150 master's level students and 50 undergraduate students.

In addition to this wonderful endowed scholarship, the ASU Spirit of Service Scholars program has received generous donations to award three scholarships in Gabe’s memory. Those interested in making a gift in memory of Gabe Zimmerman can visit http://asufoundation.org/ZimmermanTucsonSocialWork.