Matthew Scarpati Scholarship Fund

Student using a calculator to complete an assignment.

Honoring a student who dreamed of getting his MBA and law degrees, this fund supports scholarships for economics majors.

In 2010, friends and family of Matthew Scarpati started a scholarship fund in memory of the 19-year-old UB economics student who was struck and killed by a motorcycle the previous year.

The Matthew Scarpati Endowed Scholarship Fund supports annual awards of about $1,000 to male students who have completed their freshman year at UB and have chosen economics as their major.

Scarpati, an avid cyclist and athlete who played soccer and lacrosse in high school, was fixing a flat tire on his bike on a path near his Long Island home the summer before his sophomore year when a drunk motorcyclist traveling at high speed hit and fatally wounded him, his mother, Lynn Scarpati, says.

Members of Matthew’s fraternity, Pi Lambda Phi, helped raise money for the scholarship and spread awareness about the dangers of drunk driving.

“Just because Matt’s dead doesn’t mean his dreams are,” Lynn Scarpati says. “And that’s our goal—to let other kids share those dreams.”

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