“I never thought for a second that I could go to Harvard,” says Hollie Moore Haynes ’93, and said as much to the track coach from Harvard who encouraged her to apply. “It was that coach and financial aid—that was everything.” In gratitude, 29 years later, she and her husband, Jay Haynes MBA ’98, have endowed an undergraduate scholarship.
“Making Harvard affordable is so important,” says Haynes. “I hope this scholarship has the same impact on other students as financial aid did on me.”
At Harvard, Haynes was a runner and an economics concentrator. Some of her favorite memories are of long lunches in Leverett House dining hall, talking with friends. “It was just the greatest aspect of Harvard,” she recalls, “That noon lunch where you’re still sitting there at 4:30 p.m.”
Haynes is now managing partner of the private equity firm Luminate Capital Partners. She regularly comes back to Harvard for reunions and to interview undergraduates as potential recruits for her firm.
She says, “The people are what’s really great about Harvard.”