Tonja Eagan believes in the students of IUPUI. She believes students at IUPUI can succeed if they are mentored and supported, and she knows there are undergraduate students at IUPUI just like she was—students who need to be believed in and developed to make an impact on IUPUI and the world. Eagan pays tribute to these students and her undergraduate education through the Mentoring Impact Fund, an endowment she established. This fund supports the mentoring efforts of the Bepko Learning Center at IUPUI, addresses mentoring needs, supports mentoring conferences, and funds internships and scholarships for students. She encourages other individuals also to give to or to create funds and scholarships for current IUPUI students as they reflect on the impact their undergraduate education has had on their own successes.
Tonja Eagan—living to give back
Eagan feels her endowment will help students develop into future leaders, and her notion of paying it forward springs from lessons she learned at IUPUI, including how she and others could work to positively benefit others and to take on the responsibility of giving back.
Eagan holds mentoring as a dear passion and sees it as a true act of giving, a practice that she continues to this day. “This one is the one I’ve mentored the longest. Ten years I’ve been her Big Sister, and she is 18 this year, going to college,” beams Eagan, as she describes her 10-year mentorship of a girl through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana. She continued, pointing to a picture of a foreign exchange student from Japan that she mentored for a year, and then pointing to a picture of a woman she mentored as an undergraduate student. Although IUPUI cemented the idea of giving back in her, she first noticed the impact of giving back through observing her mother and grandfather as a child.
While Eagan’s passion lies with mentorship, her belief in civic engagement also remains strong as she “walks the talk” by being an active member of her Indianapolis community. In addition to her involvement with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana, Eagan serves as the CEO of the Social Health Association of Indiana, Inc., an organization committed to developing happy, healthy, and safe kids that focuses on bullying prevention, human growth, healthy relationships, and teen pregnancy prevention. She also volunteers with a variety of other organizations, including the Mentoring Women’s Network, which supports women who are new or mid-career; the FBI Citizens academy, focusing on community safety and health; and Women4Change, an inclusive nonpartisan group promoting health, safety, and respect for all Hoosiers.
