{"id":898,"date":"2018-01-25T15:23:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T15:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=898"},"modified":"2018-01-25T15:39:42","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T15:39:42","slug":"alumnus-hopes-gift-leads-to-experience-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=898","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus hopes gift leads to experience, inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kim
Kim Fornero (top) with Harvey (bottom
left) and Trish Welch (bottom right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jeff Wilson<\/em><\/p>\n

Kim Fornero knows the importance of experience.<\/p>\n

The 1990 alumnus earned his bachelor\u2019s degree from the College of Agricultural Sciences<\/a> and went into the hotel and tourism industry<\/a>, specializing in food service<\/a>. He recently made a sizeable estate gift to benefit the College of Ag<\/a> and Saluki Athletics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After working all over the country, Fornero settled in at Monmouth College in upstate Illinois. He has worked there for 19 years and is the executive chef for the university\u2019s food service.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d be where I am now if it wasn\u2019t for SIU,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an experience that I\u2019ll remember for the rest of my life. I\u2019m proud to be a Dawg.\u201d<\/p>\n

While on campus, Fornero met Trish Welch, an advisor and instructor.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe really helped the students form their direction,\u201d he said. \u201cShe took the students under her wing and really mentored them. She wanted them to do the best that they could.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrish and (her husband) Harvey are both wonderful people,\u201d he added. \u201cThey are both very caring about, not only the university, but the community as a whole. They are some of the most generous people I know. It\u2019s wonderful to see people like that, and it\u2019s kind of what inspired me to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Fornero graduated, Trish Welch asked him to join the Curriculum Advisory Committee for the College of Agricultural Sciences<\/a>. Fornero became a founding member of the committee, which disbanded a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal was to formulate a direction for students to go so they get that real-life experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The need for experience is one of the factors that Fornero noted when setting up his gift.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping it gives students the opportunity to learn and get that important experience,\u201d he said. \u201cFor them to get a good job, they have to work in the real world, and it\u2019s not always financially viable for them to make ends meet during college.\u201d<\/p>\n

His decision to become a benefactor for SIU Athletics<\/a> was based on his school spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Saluki to the core. Athletes need to have support also,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little tougher for them sometimes, because they\u2019re expected to hold a higher standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fornero wants his gift to inspire others to do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just hoping that other people will look at that and say, \u2018It\u2019s time to give back to something that helped me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Wilson Kim Fornero knows the importance of experience. The 1990 alumnus earned his bachelor\u2019s degree from the College of Agricultural Sciences and went into the hotel and tourism industry, specializing in food service. He recently made a sizeable estate gift to benefit the College of Ag and Saluki Athletics. After working all over … Continue reading Alumnus hopes gift leads to experience, inspiration<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donor-stories","category-higher-education","category-illinois-higher-education","category-siu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":902,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}