On Dec. 17, 2026, Marta Elliott, Ph.D., a Foundation Professor of Sociology in the College of Liberal Arts, awoke to the wonderful news that her old college friend Jonathan Feldman had donated $5,000 to the scholarship she recently endowed in her name.
Feldman – a blues and jazz pianist and the general counsel for the Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York – testified to why he made this generous contribution.
“The Marta Elliott Scholarship Endowment has great personal meaning to me. I knew Marta at Oberlin College, when she experienced a mental health breakdown. Years later, I was overjoyed to learn that not only had she recovered, but she had become a leading academic who researched mental health issues. Many of my clients and close friends have also faced mental health challenges, so the fact that Marta is reaching out to college students facing such challenges is incredibly significant to me,” Feldman said.
The Marta Elliott Endowed Scholarship was created to support students in the University’s College of Liberal Arts who are pursuing their education while managing a diagnosis of mental illness. To be eligible for this scholarship, students must be certified as having a mental health disability by the University’s Disability Resource Center.
Elliott is especially touched by the support of her old friend.
“In 1985, after suddenly withdrawing from college to spend fourteen months in a mental institution, I assumed that none of my college friends would remember me. For Jonathan not only to remember what happened to me, but to make such a generous contribution to helping other students in similar – albeit hopefully less severe – circumstances makes me really happy,” Elliott said.
To make a tax-free donation to this scholarship and support ҹɫÊÓƵ students who are dealing with psychological disabilities, .
Donor Jonathan Feldman is the general counsel for Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York. He has worked as a public interest lawyer his entire career, with a primary focus on civil rights law and education law. He has also taught lawyering, professional responsibility, and several clinics at Cornell Law School and Syracuse University College of Law. On the side, he plays in blues and jazz groups (piano and vocals). See Jonathan Feldman Trio on ; “Jonathan Feldman, Blues and Jazz” channel on .
