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Empowering students through experience

The Zankel Experience Network (ZEN), founded in 2020 by Skidmore trustees Jimmy Zankel ’92 and Pia Scala-Zankel ’92, brings together alumni, parents, and families who believe in the power of hands-on learning. This growing community of donors fuels Skidmore’s commitment to experiential education — opening doors for students to explore, discover, and thrive beyond the classroom.

Two students posing at NASA during their experiential learning opportunity

Real world opportunities

ZEN supports and strengthens transformative programs such as:
  • The Summer Experience Fund
  • SEE-Beyond Awards
  • Faculty-Student Summer Research
  • ZEN Alumni Mentoring Program
Each gift, at any level, helps create real opportunities for students to turn their passions into purpose — through internships, research, mentorship, and more.
Make a gift
Jimmy Zankel '92 at Skidmore podium smiling

Jimmy Zankel '92

Jimmy founded the Zankel Experience Network to give more students the chance to learn by doing — the kind of hands-on experiences that shaped his own journey. He continues to champion ZEN as a way to connect alumni, families, and friends who believe in the lasting impact of experiential education.
Watch Jimmy's Video

Over the course of more than three decades, Jimmy Zankel, president of the Zankel Scala Family Foundation and the Zankel Music Fund, has amassed a colorful career in media, communications, food, and philanthropy, including music news production (VH1/Viacom); instructional cooking series production (Food Network/Scripps); cause-related marketing (Cone/Omnicom); and professional cooking (Union Square Cafe).

Bringing 20 years of nonprofit board and foundation management experience to his philanthropic work, Zankel is a two-term trustee of his alma mater, Skidmore College, where he co-chairs the Advancement Committee; vice chair of WhyHunger, a global food justice organization, and chair of its Trusteeship Committee; a member of the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts Academy Advisory Board; former secretary of the board of the Big Apple Circus; and chairman emeritus of Carnegie Hall’s Notables program.

An avid guitar player, cook, concert-goer, and record collector, Jimmy resides in Brooklyn with his wife and two teenage children. He is currently writing his memoir.

Creative ways to give

Various giving opportunities and levels are available, with every gift helping ensure more students have the chance to experience a powerful sense of discovery through doing. Examples of ZEN giving opportunities include: 

  • Endowing an annual summer internship or experiential opportunity
  • Contributing annually through the Skidmore Fund to support summer career-building experiences 
  • Making a multiyear commitment to fund new or ongoing faculty-student collaborative research, SEE Beyond awards, or Summer Experience Fund stipends

Support through mentorship

Based in Skidmore’s Career Development Center (CDC), the ZEN Mentoring Program matches Skidmore students at the start of their junior year with recent Skidmore alumni who have similar career interests. Student-mentor pairs meet (virtually or in person) throughout the academic year, with a focus on helping the students achieve their career goals. 

Experience in action

See how the Zankel Experience Network brings learning to life — from summer internships and global research to alumni mentorship and hands-on discovery across disciplines.
Kevin Langyintuo, a philosophy major and media and film studies minor, has always loved telling stories through his art. With a Summer Experience Fund grant, he was able to travel to Ghana to create a documentary about amateur boxers in one of Ghana's oldest districts of Acca, Jamestown.

Kevin Langyintuo ’24

A philosophy major and media and film studies minor, Kevin has always loved telling stories through his art. With a Summer Experience Fund grant, he was able to travel to Ghana to create a documentary about amateur boxers in one of Ghana's oldest districts of Acca, Jamestown.
Tzevi Aho '24 poses with an animal skull while researching geological formation local to their home in Jonesport, Maine.

Tzevi Aho ’24

Tzevi has been interested in paleontology for as long as they can remember. The geosciences major was able to devote a summer to researching an understudied geological formation local to their home in Jonesport, Maine.
Biology major and basketball star Julia Blanck ’24 used a Summer Experience Fund grant to intern at North Fork Oyster Company Inc. where she gained hands-on experience at the intersections of marine biology, ocean farming, and sustainability.

Julia Blanck ’24

A biology major and basketball star, Julia used a Summer Experience Fund grant to intern at North Fork Oyster Company Inc. where she gained hands-on experience at the intersections of marine biology, ocean farming, and sustainability.
Avery Blake and Morgan Foster spent a summer researching spongy moths, formally known as Lymantria dispar moths, by conducting fieldwork with Charlie Bettigole, director of the GIS Center for Interdisciplinary Research, in the Lake George Watershed. Using GIS analytics, they tracked defoliation patterns and species behavior.

Avery Blake ’23 & Morgan Foster ’23

Avery and Morga spent a summer researching spongy moths, formally known as Lymantria dispar moths, by conducting fieldwork with Charlie Bettigole, director of the GIS Center for Interdisciplinary Research, in the Lake George Watershed. Using GIS analytics, they tracked defoliation patterns and species behavior.
A music major and history minor, Benjamin spent the summer working on the soundtrack for a feature-length documentary about Camp Stomping Ground, located about 15 minutes from Skidmore's campus.

Benjamin Rodis ’25

A music major and history minor, Benjamin spent the summer working on the soundtrack for a feature-length documentary about Camp Stomping Ground, located about 15 minutes from Skidmore's campus.
A student excavating an archaeology site in Skidmore's North Woods that was once home to a Revolutionary War family farm and estate.

Kelby Wittenberg ’23

Kelby spent his summer excavating an archaeology site in Skidmore's North Woods that was once home to a Revolutionary War family farm and estate. As part of the Faculty-Student Summer Research program, his findings will support ongoing research and curriculum led by Associate Professor Siobhan Hart.
Environmental Studies and Sciences Program Director and Associate Professor Nurcan Atalan-Helicke and Brook Heston worked together to study food systems and sources, particularly the ingredients logistics and international processes behind Halal labels and foods.

Brook Heston ’22

Brook worked with Environmental Studies and Sciences Program Director and Associate Professor, Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, to study food systems and sources, particularly the ingredients logistics and international processes behind Halal labels and foods.
Emma Laquinta ’25, a biology major and coxswain of the men’s rowing team, looks at a trout during a visit to the USGS S.O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center with Skidmore College biology professor Jason Breves

Emma Laquinta ’25

Emma, a biology major and coxswain of the men’s rowing team, looks at a trout during a visit to the USGS S.O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center with Skidmore College biology professor Jason Breves.
Student Lily Whelden ’25 works to excavate artifacts from the site of a Revolutionary War-era smallpox hospital in Lake George Battlefield Park with Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology Siobhan Hart

Lily Whelden ’25

Lily worked to excavate artifacts from the site of a Revolutionary War-era smallpox hospital in Lake George Battlefield Park with Associate Professor and Chair of Anthropology Siobhan Hart.

Make a gift

Fuel discovery through doing. Your support of ZEN turns real-world experiences into real-world impact.
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