‘It Took a Weight Off My Shoulders’

Manning School of Business student Debbie Choueiri hopped online one morning last year and discovered a pleasant surprise: She was receiving $3,000 from the Rist Families Endowed Scholarship Fund to put toward her spring and fall semesters in 2024.

“I was in a little bit of need, so it helped me a lot. It took a weight off my shoulders,” says Choueiri, a sophomore marketing and management student from Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Choueiri and 18 other Rist scholarship recipients had a chance to thank the people behind the awards — Brian Rist ’77, ’22, ’22 (H), his wife Kim Rist ’22 (H) and his sister Diane Rist — during a recent luncheon at Alumni Hall.

Brian Rist earned a bachelor’s degree in operations management from UML before going on to found Storm Smart, a leading line of hurricane protection products. The Rists sold the company in 2020 and created the Rist Family Foundation to focus on charitable endeavors. In 2022, they made a $3 million gift to UMass Lowell to create the university’s first-ever endowed deanship.

“We’ve been very blessed, so being able to do the things we’re doing here is just so rewarding,” Rist told the students, who each got a chance to chat with the family and share how their scholarships have impacted their business education. 

“It’s so nice to put a face with the name,” Rist said.

Keira Mejia-Martinez, a junior management information systems student from Lowell, says the $1,000 she received from the Rists this semester allowed her “to continue my education without as much financial stress.” 

“It was lovely meeting them,” says Mejia-Martinez, who is pursuing her degree online. “He gave us a lot of insight into his success and talked about what it was like for him to be a student here.”

Wilton Ortega, a junior finance student from Methuen, Massachusetts, says his $2,500 award from the Rists “means a lot.”

“It goes a long way for me,” says Ortega, who tries to emulate the Rists’ generosity in his role as president of the UMass Lowell Real Estate Network Association. “I do as much as I can to contribute to the Manning School, getting students involved.”

Before lunch, students wrote thank-you notes to the Rists, which they brought back home to Florida.

“It’s something tangible that they can always look back on,” says Rist Family Endowed Dean of the Manning School Bertie Greer.

Seventy-eight current undergraduate and graduate students in the Manning School have received support from the Rist Families Endowed Scholarship Fund.

“Sometimes students think people who have this type of wealth and ability to give back are so far away from them,” Greer says. “It was good they could get together and engage and talk — and hopefully see themselves in that position one day.”