Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Media, Law & Policy
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Media, Law & Policy

Gift to Newhouse Students: Providing Opportunities for the Curious and the Adventuresome

Tuesday, September 21, 2021, By Eileen Korey
Share
alumniForever OrangeNewhouse School of Public CommunicationsPhilanthropyscholarships
person in front of building

Henrietta “Etta” Fielek

Opportunity is defined as a situation that makes it possible to do something you want to do. For Henrietta “Etta” Fielek ’70, G’77, the opportunity to attend her dream school—Syracuse University—was made possible by scholarship support and financial aid. Now, she’s ensuring that others have similar opportunities, especially those who are driven by the same kind of passionate curiosity that inspired her.

“I’m from a small town, Perth Amboy, New Jersey, a dying industrial city,” says Fielek. “I was a curious girl with a mother who encouraged me to be independent and to explore whatever I was interested in.” The young Etta showed an early interest in journalism, even reading newspaper headlines at age 4. As a teenager, she started a weekly newspaper for the town’s recreation department, reporting on playground news.

“I was always ‘nosey’ and curious and information-oriented. If you give people information that helps them make connections with people and things they need, they can have better lives,” Fielek says. She was editor of her high school newspaper and dreamed of a career in journalism. She saw the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications as the best way to achieve that dream.

It was the late 1960s when she headed to Syracuse University. The Vietnam War, the Kent State shootings and campus unrest dominated the national news. This small town girl began to see a much bigger world with even greater opportunities to explore. So she took advantage of scholarship support once more and headed to Florence, Italy, to study abroad during the spring semester of 1969. “I took an additional six weeks to travel around Europe on a train with another woman from Syracuse University,” Fielek says. “It was such an eye-opener!”

Those experiences as a Syracuse University student inspired Fielek.  In 2020, through her estate plans, she established the Henrietta Fielek Endowed Scholarship to provide financial support to first-year students at Newhouse, supporting students both now and in the future. This year, she also established the Fielek Syracuse Abroad-Newhouse Fund, to cover program fees and other non-tuition expenses for undergraduate students in Newhouse interested in global experiences.

Dean Mark J. Lodato expresses deep gratitude for Fielek’s continuing support of the Newhouse School. “Her generous contribution will help more women and other curious and adventurous students succeed at Syracuse University and achieve their personal and professional goals,” Lodato says. “Etta is a shining example of the strength of the Newhouse School alumni network.”

In the late ’60s Fielek recalls women did not have the same opportunities to excel in reporting careers. After graduation, she worked at starter papers in New Jersey. “It wasn’t until that time that I understood the limitations professionally because I was a woman,” says Fielek. Female reporters were not allowed to cover what editors saw as more dangerous stories like an industrial plant explosion; they were forced to work the phones in the office instead. When offered a “promotion” to work the overnight desk, she decided to leave journalism and pursue new adventures.

“I knew there was a big world out there and unless I took the initiative to dip my toe in it, it wasn’t going to happen,” says Fielek. She headed to Washington, D.C., hand-delivered resumés to dozens of Congressional offices, pursued a job opening she heard about in an elevator, worked various public affairs and media relations jobs in government and eventually joined the American Hospital Association (AHA) where she spent nearly two decades and helped to launch the Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care. Two years ago, she retired from her position as vice president of political outreach for the AHA.

Fielek says her own professional success comes from both pursuing opportunities and seizing them when they come along. She credits her mother with essentially giving her permission to explore, take risks and be bold. “She never questioned my ideas. She never tried to get in my way. She let me try new things, screw up, make mistakes. She was never judgmental, even when I did crazy things. I think I have made every mistake there is to make,” she says. “The point is not to make the same mistake twice!”

Through her philanthropy, Fielek hopes to nurture in others, especially young women and others who have an entrepreneurial spirit, that sense of adventure that her mother offered her. “I just want to make it possible for them to fulfill their own dreams,” she says. “You don’t have to be a mega-millionaire to support a cause, to advance education and to support young people. You just have to decide what your priorities are—and then take action.”

About Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university that advances knowledge across disciplines to drive breakthrough discoveries and breakout leadership. Our collection of 13 schools and colleges with over 200 customizable majors closes the gap between education and action, so students can take on the world. In and beyond the classroom, we connect people, perspectives and practices to solve interconnected challenges with interdisciplinary approaches. Together, we’re a powerful community that moves ideas, individuals and impact beyond what’s possible.

About Forever Orange: The Campaign for Syracuse University

Orange isn’t just our color. It’s our promise to leave the world better than we found it. Forever Orange: The Campaign for Syracuse University is poised to do just that. Fueled by 150 years of fearless firsts, together we can enhance academic excellence, transform the student experience and expand unique opportunities for learning and growth. Forever Orange endeavors to raise $1.5 billion in philanthropic support, inspire 125,000 individual donors to participate in the campaign, and actively engage one in five alumni in the life of the University. Now is the time to show the world what Orange can do. Visit foreverorange.syr.edu to learn more.

  • Author

Eileen Korey

  • Recent
  • New Maymester Program Allows Student-Athletes to Develop ‘Democracy Playbook’
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin
  • From Policy to Practice: How AI is Shaping the Future of Education
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Christopher Munoz
  • Kohn, Wiklund, Wilmoth Named Distinguished Professors
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin
  • Major League Soccer’s Meteoric Rise: From Underdog to Global Contender
    Wednesday, May 7, 2025, By Keith Kobland
  • Syracuse Athletics Records Highest APR Score in 4 Years
    Wednesday, May 7, 2025, By News Staff

More In Media, Law & Policy

New Maymester Program Allows Student-Athletes to Develop ‘Democracy Playbook’

Fourteen student-athletes will experience Washington, D.C., next week as part of a new Maymester program hosted by the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship (IDJC). The one-week program, Democracy Playbook: DC Media and Civics Immersion for Student-Athletes, will…

Advance Local, Newhouse School Launch Investigative Reporting Fellowship Program

A new collaboration with Advance Local will provide Newhouse School journalism students opportunities to write and report on investigative projects with local impact for newsrooms across the country. The David Newhouse Investigative Reporting Fellowship program, which launched this year in…

Lauren Woodard Honored for Forthcoming Book on Migration Along Russia-China Border

Lauren Woodard, assistant professor of anthropology, has received the Spring 2025 Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) First Book Subvention for her upcoming book on Russia’s migration policies on the Russia-China border. Woodard’s book is titled “Ambiguous…

Maxwell School Proudly Ranks No. 1 for Public Affairs in 2025

The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs has earned the No. 1 overall spot in the latest U.S. News & World Report Best Public Affairs Schools rankings. This year’s top ranking follows Maxwell’s yearlong celebration of its founding 100…

Cultivation of Talent and Moral Compass Guide University Trustee Richard Alexander L’82

Over the last decade, Richard Alexander L’82 has navigated his chosen profession (the law) and his chosen passion (Syracuse University and its law school) through incredibly challenging waters. As partner, managing partner and chair of one of the nation’s most…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.