Gifts start with a promise. As a young law school applicant, Nick Telesca 89L walked uninvited into the dean’s office and vowed: Give me this chance, and I’ll pay it back one day.

They start, too, with adventure. Jason Liebzeit 98C still remembers hiking through the ancient city of Petra in Jordan on a study abroad trip — an experience rooted in his parents’ bold decision to move the family overseas. Their leap inspired his gift to help other students see the world.

They start with honor. Emily Park 04C and her husband, John, established a professorship so her father-in-law, a journalist-turned-legislator, could see his legacy recognized in his lifetime.

And they start with passion. Cindy and Gary Frischling chose to support the music and history departments that shaped their daughters’ paths, ensuring future students find the same inspiration and mentorship.

Different beginnings, same destination: These named gifts have transformed gratitude into opportunity, weaving personal stories into the fabric of Emory’s future.

HONORING THEIR FATHERS

Walter Park had a storied career that included working as a journalist for news outlets in Korea and the United States, hosting a popular news talk show and serving in the Korean National Assembly. But it wasn’t always smooth sailing.

“My father-in-law left post-war Korea and worked first in Hawaii as a journalist before moving to California, where he opened a business in Los Angeles,” says Emily Park. The business was lost in 1992 during the L.A. riots, and he moved back to Korea to start over.

“My husband, John, began selling used cars right out of high school, and he sent money to Korea to help his father,” she says. John, who parlayed those initial earnings into his own successful entrepreneurial venture, helped finance his father’s news talk show, which ran for several years on Korean television, and his successful campaign for public office. After serving in the Korean National Assembly, Walter Park earned a PhD in political science and taught at several universities.

To honor him, Emily and John funded the Park Family Faculty Endowment in Emory’s Department of Political Science, which establishes a professorship. “We wanted to establish a legacy gift for my father-in-law while he was able to enjoy it,” Emily says.

Emily and John’s generosity is deeply rooted in family. In 2018, they created the Park Family Scholarship, which honors Rev. Daniel Shin, Emily’s father and a retired United Methodist minister. “I attended Emory through the generosity of donors,” she says. “So I established this scholarship for children of Methodist pastors, like me, but also for the children of church administrators, such as choir directors or church secretaries,” she says.

Emily was deeply influenced by what she calls “the ethos of Emory, which is to stay curious,” she says. “At Emory, I learned how to write and communicate with confidence, and those skills have opened so many doors for me professionally.”

FUNDING NEW ADVENTURES

In the 1980s, Edward and Carole Liebzeit threw caution to the wind and moved their family from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Saudi Arabia.

“My dad was offered a job there, and my parents were brave enough to say yes to the opportunity,” says Jason Liebzeit. Spending a part of his adolescence there “totally opened my eyes,” he says.

Although he describes his hometown of Cincinnati as a great place to grow up, “it was a very homogenous community. In Saudi Arabia, I learned that everyone was not like me, that other cultures and belief systems existed, and that the world was larger than I had imagined,” he says.

“I’m happy that I can help other Emory students pursue their own adventures.”

— Jason Liebzeit 98C

Liebzeit credits his parents’ decision four decades ago with inspiring him to stretch himself and take risks.

He established the Edward and Carole Liebzeit Scholarship to honor their spirit of adventure and provide study abroad opportunities for Emory students. As an anthropology major, Liebzeit participated in a summer study program in Israel and Jordan. “We met the president of Israel and visited the Israeli Supreme Court,” he says. “And we hiked through the desert and visited Petra, which was spectacular. I want other people to have those kinds of experiences, too.”

After Emory, Liebzeit went to medical school in Cleveland before returning as a faculty member in 2006. He is currently an assistant dean for Emory School of Medicine’s undergraduate and graduate medical education programs at Grady Memorial Hospital and an associate professor of emergency medicine.

He emphasizes that his parents were a source of encouragement and support from day one. “I always knew they would help me both emotionally and financially — that I could try things and still have a soft landing,” he says. “They always say that traveling and seeing the world really changed them for the better. I’m happy that I can help other Emory students pursue their own adventures.”  

BRINGING POWER TO THE PEOPLE 

Cindy and Gary Frischling are proud of their daughters and appreciate the opportunities they received at Emory. “We gave to support the two terrific departments where they spent so much time at Emory,” Cindy says. They also relied on their daughters, Samantha Frischling 17C and Rebecca “Becca” Frischling 23C, to help determine what they should fund.

Their first gift established a vocal studies scholarship in the Department of Music. Samantha discovered a close, supportive community there, particularly in the voice and choral music programs, Cindy says. Now a professional musician, “Samantha performs in opera choruses and professional choirs, and she is an adjunct professor in Kennesaw State University’s music department,” she says. “She’s carving out a nice career for herself, and we’re very proud of her.”

“We believe that music and history round out the liberal arts experience that so many students seek at a school like Emory, and that is worthy of support.”

— Cindy Frischling

Becca, who also participated in choir and a cappella groups at Emory, majored in history and is in her second year of law school at University of California, Berkeley. “Thanks to a history department award at Emory, she was able to pursue an independent research project in New York that became an essential part of her honors thesis,” Cindy says.

Becca spent that summer examining primary source material housed at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The letters, songs and flyers she discovered there were woven into her thesis, “Freedom in Song: An Examination of the Workmen’s Circle, Choral Music and Theater within the American Yiddish Labor Movement, 1920–1940.”

The Frischlings were impressed by the rigor of Becca’s experiential learning experience, and this led to their second gift. “We created an endowed fund within the history department to give other students access to similar research opportunities,” Cindy says.

They also wanted to support two of Emory’s smaller departments that punch above their weight when it comes to instructional quality, faculty-student mentorship and career guidance.

“Our girls were lucky to have had such great professors who influenced their personal and professional development,” Cindy says. “We believe that music and history round out the liberal arts experience that so many students seek at a school like Emory, and that is worthy of support.”

KEEPING HIS PROMISE

Nick Telesca wasn’t a typical Emory Law applicant. After graduating from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, with a degree in economics, he worked mostly blue-collar jobs to support himself. “It was hard, physical labor,” he says. “But it made me want to change the trajectory of my life.”

Telesca decided to go to law school, and he was strategic about the location. “I knew that Atlanta was growing fast,” he says. “I thought my prospects would be better in a place like that than in New York City, where I had been working in the Fulton Fish Market.” He applied to Emory Law and was wait-listed.

Telesca also applied to law schools in California and Florida, but Emory was the only school he visited. “I came down, walked around the campus and went right to the dean’s office,” he says. After a long wait, then-Dean David Epstein agreed to meet with him.

“I had no appointment and no real plan, but I was persistent,” he says. “I promised him that if he would admit me I would pay it back one day.”

Telesca’s persistence paid off, and he was accepted. He did so well the first year that he received the American Jurisprudence Award for Academic Excellence in both his torts and contracts classes, earning some much-needed scholarship assistance in the process.

After graduating, Telesca took another big risk: He turned down offers from Manhattan law firms for work in commercial real estate.

The first four years were difficult, and he struggled financially before joining Branch Properties LLC, “eventually becoming a partner, then president and now chairman of the firm,” he says. “We’re one of the largest retail property owners and developers in the Southeast, and our success has allowed me to give back to Emory Law.”

It took 42 years, but Telesca kept his promise and created the Telesca Family Scholarship. “It’s for students who come from modest beginnings, like I did,” he says. “I hope the scholarship helps them create their own story of transformation.”

Photos by Ben Knisely and courtesy of the Park, Telesca and Frischling families.