Her most recent gift — the Virginia Reed Demoreuille ’73 Memorial Scholarship — will support students in the College of Arts & Sciences and is named for Griffith’s niece, who received her degree in art & art history. “It means a lot to be able to make this difference for students,” she says. Indeed, Griffith’s gifts have been a catalyst for success for many Bucknellians. Here, three recipients of the Roy & Ariel Griffith Memorial Scholarship (Griffith’s first scholarship, created in memory of her parents to support pre-med students) reflect on the impact of her generosity.

I loved the bureau, the agents and the work. But I resigned after only 11 months because I couldn’t tolerate Hoover’s policies. He made us spend time making him look good politically at the expense of fighting crime.

I pursued a job with the organized crime section of the U.S. Department of Justice, which was under the leadership of Attorney General Robert Kennedy. During my interview, I was asked about the FBI’s investigative work. I hesitated. Should I be talking about this confidential information? I concluded that I should. The FBI falls under the justice department; Kennedy is Hoover’s boss.

As I started to reveal the FBI’s secrets, including its informant program and wiretapping activities, the interviewers’ eyes widened. “Wiretapping? What wiretapping?” They requested I prepare a detailed report for Kennedy.

Today, as the legal counsel to an environmental nonprofit, he’s using his storytelling skills to minimize health risks for vulnerable people in remote communities.

Karanian is an attorney and policy adviser for Environmental Strategies International (ESI), a nonprofit that partners with governments, international agencies, academics and community leaders to design and implement solutions to environmental problems. Karanian, who runs a private law practice in Pasadena, Calif., joined ESI on a volunteer basis in 2015. He traveled to Bangladesh earlier this year and will return this fall to support ESI’s efforts to provide clean, safe water to local communities.

In 2018, ESI and Chemists Without Borders (CWB) tested water wells in Bangladesh and discovered the water contained dangerously high levels of arsenic. “The World Health Organization called the situation in Bangladesh ‘the largest mass poisoning of a population in history,’ ” Karanian says.

Bonnie Bethea Limmer ’02 played a key role in the response to that breach — and uncovered important lessons that could prevent a future attack. As the chief of production for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Limmer works to identify and share information about cyber threats and vulnerabilities so organizations can safeguard themselves. In the aftermath of the Colonial Pipeline attack, Limmer’s team produced an advisory that outlined the attacker’s tactics and shared steps the cyber community, as well as organizations and corporations, could implement to prevent similar attacks in the future.

“In a U.S. cyber mission, the FBI is like the police and CISA is like the fire department,” Limmer says. “We see the problem, rush to aid the victim and then gather information so we can educate the wider community. During that type of incident response, especially when there’s public pressure and media attention, the operational tempo is high. You’re trying to quickly weave pieces of information from various sources into a clear understanding of what happened and what to do about it — it requires strong communication, trust and teamwork.”

JAYLEN AMAKER ’15 was a fresh Bucknell graduate only a few hours into his first full-time job with the finance team at Ralph Lauren when his new boss put him on the spot in a meeting. “She asked me what the current exchange rate was from U.S. dollars to pesos,” he says. “I had to admit that I had no idea. She said, ‘If you’re going to be my finance guy, you need to know these things.’ ”

Amaker could’ve felt embarrassed or deflated. Instead, he felt inspired and energized. “I realized I was going to learn a lot from her,” he says. His ability to recognize the value of people who push him — and his willingness to rise to the challenge in response — has helped him forge a successful career path in which he’s always eager to learn and grow.

The political science major had planned to go straight to law school after graduation. But an externship with Don Shacknai ’83, then-general counsel for the New York City Fire Department, in 2013 made him consider an alternative path. Shacknai and his colleagues suggested Amaker accumulate more work experience first. While not initially keen on delaying his legal aspirations, Amaker appreciated and accepted their collective wisdom. He ended up spending four years working in corporate finance for Ralph Lauren and Condé Nast before applying to law school.

Janet Shotwell Hunt, July 16, Wexford, Pa.

Bill Gingerich, April 8, Cummaquid, Mass.