The Penny Jessop Travel Fund

Penny Jessop in Tilliberi, Niger as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Make a donation using this form.

The Fund

To recognize and honor Penny Jessop’s many years of service to SPHTM students and the Peace Corps community, we established the Penny Jessop Student Travel Fund to assist graduate level students with travel expenses for academic purposes. This may include, but is not limited to, travel for practica, research, summer programs, projects, conferences, etc. Students’ financial needs are considered and, at Penny’s request, consideration will be given to students who associate with or participate in SPHTM’s Peace Corps Programs, including Returning Peace Corps Volunteers, Masters Internationalists, and any programs which may be established in the future.

The fund is endowed in perpetuity at Tulane SPHTM – the corpus is invested, with the annual proceeds helping worthy students. This has established a permanent pool of funding which will benefit students and continues Penny’s legacy for generations to come.

As of December 2015 the endowed fund totaled over $56,000.  At this level, the income can provide approximately three $600 travel grants each year or one $1,800 travel grant.  Okay, we know what you are thinking, a little return for a lot of money.  The point is – it is permanent.  100 years from now we will all be gone, but the Penny Jessop Student Travel Fund will still support student travel for academic purposes.  That is the way of all endowed funds; it takes more money to make them permanent.  And what an appropriate legacy for Penny – to continue helping students forever!

Our long-term goal is to build the fund to  to be as large as possible. Clearly a larger fund will provide more assistance to more students – Penny’s ultimate desire is to assist as many students as possible.

Download the Penny Jessop Travel Fund Guidelines and Application.

How the Fund is helping

Many students have already benefited from the Penny Jessop Student Travel Fund since its inception. Here are the ways students have used this generous resource so far:

  • Practicum sites in Benin, Brazil, Haiti, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Guangzhou, China
  • Washington, DC – State Summit for state sexual health education advocates and educational professionals
  • Australia – AIDS Conference
  • Brazil – Research on female prison and prison worker population
  • New Orleans – Travel from practicum site in Dallas, TX to APHA
  • South Africa – 3rd Global Symposium on Health Systems Research

How You Can Help to Impact More Students

Please consider a donation to honor Penny Jessop's legacy and to assist SPHTM students. You may:

  • Make a gift on-line (credit cards accepted)
  • Use the downloadable form and mail your gift.
  • Send or deliver your check to SPHTM Development Director in the Tulane SPHTM Dean’s Office:

1440 Canal Street, Suite 2400-8301
New Orleans, LA  70112-2705

Please make checks payable to Jessop Travel Fund -- Tulane SPHTM.

Gifts of ALL SIZES are welcome - and encouraged!  Every single dollar helps. If desired, gifts may be paid over a period of time. You can even include the Penny Jessop Student Travel Fund in your estate plans – for detailed instructions, contact Cait Gladow.

Questions? Contact the SPHTM Development Director, Cait Gladow.
504-314-7631