YOUNGSTOWN — A donation toward Youngstown State University’s “We See Tomorrow” campaign brings fundraising efforts above the $100 million mark.

Eleanor Watanakunakorn donated $1.5 million to endow a biomedical research lab in the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The donation will benefit students in the biological / biomedical field for the YSU Summer Undergraduate Research Program, which lasts for eight weeks.

“All of us at YSU thank Mrs. Watanakunakorn for her generosity and continued support of the university and our students,” President Jim Tressel said.

The donation puts the campaign a year-and-a-half ahead of schedule. The “We See Tomorrow” campaign is the largest in the university’s history.

“It is with gratitude we acknowledge and thank those generous donors who helped us reach this impressive goal ahead of schedule,” said Jocelyne Linsalata, campaign chair. “We have developing conversations with numerous potential additional donors to the campaign, and we look to embrace those individuals and the opportunity they present by the conclusion of the campaign in June 2021.”

The seven-year effort is designed to elevate the academic stature of YSU, increase scholarship opportunities and to encourage the campus to embrace technological advancements of the 21st century.

Watanakunakorn is a long-standing philanthropic leader in the Mahoning Valley and beyond. In 2014, she was recognized as Outstanding Philanthropist by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Mahoning-Shenango Chapter National Philanthropy Day Awards. That same year, she received an honorary degree from Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown, the institution where her late husband, Dr. Chatrchai Watanakukorn, taught. Watanakunakorn honored her husband’s legacy in 2008 by establishing the Dr. Chatrchai and Eleanor Watanakunakorn Scholarship at the YSU Foundation.

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