Helen DiPaolo still cherishes memories of her time in the School of Allied Health.
Alumna names alma mater in retirement plan
Helen DiPaolo, an alumna of the University of Kansas School of Allied Health, counts herself lucky to have a rewarding career in health care. She says her education at KU had a lot to do with it.
When the time came to select a beneficiary for her retirement plan, it only seemed natural to recognize the institution that gave her so much, she says. She chose KU Endowment Association as a partial beneficiary and designated her contribution as an unrestricted gift to the School of Allied Health. She estimates the value of her gift to be $50,000.
“I really enjoyed my experience of going to the School of Allied Health,” says DiPaolo, of Mukilteo, Wash. “I wanted to give something back because I believe strongly in the program.” As a student in the respiratory therapy program, she learned to help patients in a variety of urgent settings, be it a mother in trouble in labor and delivery, a newborn struggling in pediatric ICU, a trauma patient in the ER, or asthma patients equipped with ventilators. She says she enjoyed the variety and challenge of responding to patients in need: “I liked them all.”
DiPaolo graduated in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science in Respiratory Therapy from the then-recently launched baccalaureate program. “I was degree number 5,” she says proudly. She says changing the program to a baccalaureate program enabled it to recruit higher caliber respiratory therapists, invigorating the profession.
She worked at KU Med Center from 1979 to 1981 and was a team leader for respiratory therapists. And, although her career has taken her across the country to Washington state and to Vietnam for a teaching stint in 2004, she continues to fondly remember her days at 39th and Rainbow.
“I’m just grateful for all the experiences I had,” she said. “It enabled me to have a really great life.”