Endowing creativity
July 17, 2025 — Harold W. “Hal” Fuson ’67 has strong memories of the Program in Practical Political Education (PPPE) during his time at Grinnell, coordinated by one of the political science faculty who had been elected to an Iowa state office.
In a two-year span, former presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman both visited and spoke on campus. Fuson was impressed with the caliber of the speakers and the dozens of journalists that covered the events.
Pam Crist Fuson ’68 and Hal Fuson ’67 recently made a $125,000 gift to Grinnell to support the CLS and Pioneer Fund.
That kind of powerful extra-curricular program is, in part, what motivated Hal and Pam Crist Fuson ’68 to help launch the Arts, Media & Communications Career Community of the Center for Careers, Life, and Service (CLS) in 2017 through a $500,000 gift. To continue to bolster its work, the couple recently pledged $100,000 to create an endowed fund for the same career community. They gave an additional $25,000 to the Pioneer Fund for unrestricted use.
“A significant percentage of students in my time were very capable, but it took them years to maximize their potential,” said Hal, a Grinnell life trustee and retired journalist. “The CLS career communities are a very important addition to the resources Grinnell makes available to help students achieve. We got the opportunity to direct some of our giving to the College’s efforts to make sure that nobody gets left out.”
Under the leadership of Associate Director Destini Ross, the Arts, Media & Communications Career Community – commonly shortened to AMC – helps students design meaningful careers across journalism, marketing, advertising, museums and art administration, and in the performing, written, and visual arts. Current programming includes workshops on creating a portfolio website, participation in relevant conferences, and connections to post-grad apprenticeships.
Students can also connect with alumni in their intended career paths. At least two job offers have resulted from speed networking virtual meetups between students and alums.
Salif Sangare ’26, who is studying sociology, studio art, and film and media studies, says Ross played a major role in guiding his independent development of a summer internship aligned with his passion for apparel and footwear design.
As he pursues sneaker design and development, the Arts, Media & Communications Career Community has been helpful to Salif Sangare ’26 in a number of ways.
“Through CLS [professional development grant] funding, I enrolled in a sneaker development course that sharpened my technical skills and deepened my understanding of the industry,” Sangare says. “I also received funding from the Wilson Center Catalyst Fund to bring one of my apparel ideas to life; an opportunity that’s allowing me to pitch my work to companies like Nike, Adidas, and others this summer. What made this experience even more powerful is that I didn’t just wait for the perfect opportunity to show up; after conversations with Destini around career paths, internship strategies, networking, and personal branding, I tapped into my network and built something for myself.”
The myriad of creative paths under the AMC umbrella have undergone significant transformation over the last 25 years. The endowment gift will leverage career development advising to attract students to creative pathways and empower them to translate their liberal arts experiences into rewarding and remunerative careers.
“One of the things I love most about Grinnell is the interesting and truly diverse pathways our students and alumni ultimately pursue,” says Mark Peltz, Daniel and Patricia Jipp Finkelman Dean of Careers, Life, and Service. “This new endowment will ensure, in perpetuity, that the AMC Career Community will continue to support and prepare future generations of students and alumni for exciting and viable creative careers.”
The fund could be used for a wide range of student activities, such as industry exploration events, internship or externship funding, travel to conferences, skill-building workshops, and technologies and resources that foster career readiness.
Amy Kan ’27, an art history major from Chicago, is a research assistant and Vivero Digital Fellow for Digital Humanities. She credits the career community with bolstering her future vocation in the arts.
“As an art history major, working with Destini has emboldened me in ways I never thought possible,” she says. “Through application and interview prep, I earned a spot in the Mellon Mays [Undergraduate Fellowship] Class of 2027 cohort. I also relied on Destini’s cold calling advice to secure two concurrent arts summer internships, in addition to a position with the Art Institute of Chicago’s McMullan Summer Intensive and an immersive language experience in Germany. Frequenting the CLS has made a future in the arts – whether in museums or academia – feel within reach.”
Students take part in the second of three Humanities Portfolio Website Workshops that were taught by Tierney Steelberg, digital liberal arts specialist, and Mo Pelzel, director of academic technology. The workshops were faciliatated by the AMC Career Community.
For Hal, working for two years as business manager and editor of the Scarlet & Black, Grinnell’s student newspaper, was one of the most significant experiences of his college career. The experiential, on-the-job journalism training he received taught him how to write about controversial issues in the turbulent 1960s. He felt he made a real contribution by writing articles of substance.
Fuson went on to an esteemed career in the field, earning an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University and a J.D. from Cleveland State University. He worked for more than four decades as a journalist, teacher, and news executive, providing legal advice to newspapers ranging from the Los Angeles Times to the Galesburg Register-Mail. His work in expanding and protecting First Amendment rights has been recognized nationally.
As a Grinnell student, Pam was director of the White Caps, the College’s synchronized swimming team. The couple got married in December 1966 and moved to New York and then Houston after Hal’s graduation. Pam continued her education first at Columbia and then at the University of Houston, where she graduated with a fine arts degree in 1970. Pam went on to work as a ceramicist and a sales assistant to a renowned Hollywood silversmith.
“The important thing for us is that the CLS program makes sure every graduate finds a path toward those places that need them, whether they work on a violin or a typewriter,” Hal says, “and that they are able to bring a little more to the table than if Grinnell College had not pressed them to think about the world more broadly.”
—by Kim Kobersmith