When her daughter began her journey as a member of the Harvard College Class of 2018, Beth Tomasello ’81 shared a prediction: “I told her, ‘In these four years, you will meet more interesting people in one place than you will meet at any other time in your life.’”
Tomasello credits Harvard’s extraordinary financial aid program with helping make her prediction possible, enabling the College to bring together undergraduates with a remarkable range of talents, interests, backgrounds, and perspectives.
“You learn so much at Harvard from your fellow students,” she says. “Every student I met at Harvard enriched my experience.”
Tomasello, who lives in Maryland, supports the industry-leading Harvard Financial Aid Initiative through annual gifts to the Harvard College Fund. She has contributed consistently since graduation, and she’s a longstanding member of the 1636 Society, a community of more than 30,000 loyal supporters who give to the Fund every year.
“I am very proud of Harvard’s generous financial aid program and its commitment to need-blind admissions,” she says. “For me, it’s important to feel I am doing my small part, year after year, to help preserve that commitment. Harvard provides life-changing opportunities like no other place in the world. And I want to see those opportunities go to as many students, from as many varied backgrounds, as possible.”
She also contributes to help Harvard stay on the cutting-edge when it comes to academic programs and facilities. For example, her daughter has a strong interest in the history of art and architecture, “and she now has the brand new Harvard Art Museums in which to study.”
As an undergraduate, Tomasello concentrated in history, rowed crew with Currier House (where she lived), and taught prison inmates to read through a Phillips Brooks House Association community service project. She is a public-interest lawyer, has worked for nonprofit organizations, and is politically active in her community.
Tomasello’s father and mother went to Harvard and Radcliffe, respectively, and met at a Catholic Club dance on campus. Her father, Robert E. Tomasello ’51, MBA ’55, died suddenly in 1972 when Beth was 13 years old, and Tomasello also contributes to the Harvard College Fund to honor his memory and his strong bond with Harvard. When her mother, Nancy Shea Tomasello ’53, passed away in 2006, Tomasello chose Memorial Church as the site of her memorial service. She recalls how chaplain Dorothy Austin, also co-master at Lowell House, met with her ailing mother and then officiated at her funeral and memorial service.
“Dorothy Austin is one of the most extraordinary women I have ever met. She was so thoughtful and helpful to our family at a difficult time,” Tomasello says. “She is a reminder of the special community that gathers at Harvard, and why I try to do my part to give back.”