Continuing the Legacy
Dedicated alumna Barbara Stephens Foster brings communities together
Barbara Stephens Foster (B.G.S. '90) has exemplified the legacy of the former General College through her biography as a former staff member, student, and involved alumna. A lifelong volunteer and mentor, Stephens Foster played a critical role helping her fellow alumni transition to their new home within the College of Education and Human Development five years ago.
She grew up in Pittsburgh, then relocated to Minnesota with the rest of her family when her brother Sandy Stephens became the Gophers' first African-American quarterback. She worked in the General College Dean’s Office from 1965 to 1999, serving under eight different acting deans in nine different positions.
Through those years, she gave back to the community through volunteer work and raised her children. She also found time to finish the education she had started at Penn State long ago. She designed her own degree, with an emphasis on childcare administration. “I was very proud of it,” she recalls. "It took me 25 years to get my degree," she laughs, "but I got it at the U of M.”
Stephens Foster remembers the spirit of the General College as one of opportunity—even second chances, as in her own example. She also emphasizes that to succeed, students had to have a purpose and goal in mind. “People forget, alumnus and Noble Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug was admitted through the General College,” she comments.
Her own purpose has always been one of service, and she has done everything from reading to the blind, to working with United Way, to raising scholarship funds for Osseo Senior High School students. At the University, she mentors African-American student athletes—especially football players, is a member of the CEHD Women's Philanthropic Leadership Circle, and serves on the CEHD Alumni Society Board.
"Whatever the college needed was always paramount, and that's still true—that's how I feel about the Alumni Board work that I do." Her dedication was recognized with a 1999 President's Award for Outstanding Service and, more recently, with a 2009 University Alumni Service Award.
She is proud to see the college and the Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning continue some student development and services programming with roots in the General College. And her pride in the University is undiminished:
”Because [the University of Minnesota] was the reason we came here in the first place, it’s been part of the fabric of my family's life. My children, my brother, my sister—all of us attended. And after this many years, it's part of who I am."
Story by Sarah Askari | February 2011
