- December 12, 2025
- By Emily Schuster
A University of Maryland alumnus has committed $1 million to support the expansion and renovation of the College of Education’s Benjamin Building and to provide scholarships for future special education teachers.
Elliott B. Jaffa ’65, A.G.S. ’68, Ed.D. ’73 made a $750,000 bequest to the Education Building Fund and will give $250,000 to support the Dr. Elliott B. Jaffa Endowed Scholarship in Special Education, which he established with a $133,000 gift in 2021. These funds will support merit-based scholarships for undergraduate students in UMD’s special education teacher preparation program who have shown leadership in the field.
“We are deeply grateful to Dr. Jaffa for his generous support of our building renovation and future special education teachers,” said Dean Kimberly Griffin. “Redesigned spaces will allow us to demonstrate teaching innovations, pursue bold research and build stronger relationships across the college to address the most pressing challenges facing education. The scholarships are critical to supporting the next generation of special education teachers.”
The Benjamin Building’s expansion, will house new gathering spaces and state-of-the-art classrooms, labs and technology that will foster collaboration, active learning and cutting-edge research. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2030.
The building project is one of five priorities the college is focusing on as part of UMD’s recently launched $2.5 billion fundraising initiative, Forward: The University of Maryland Campaign for the Fearless.
Jaffa earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology, an advanced graduate specialist certificate in education, and a doctorate in counseling and personnel services from UMD. He spent nine years as a leader in special education schools before launching a career as a behavioral and marketing psychologist and consultant.
“A special education teacher is a special teacher,” said Jaffa. “The country has a shortage of teachers, and a special education teacher is a harder teacher to find. I have a passion for special education, and those are the kids that I want to focus on.”
Jaffa began his career in 1967 as director of the School for Contemporary Education (now known as PHILLIPS Programs), which was then a new special education school with just four students. By the time he departed the school five years later, the student body had grown to 135. In his career as a consultant, he assists clients with creative problem-solving, marketing, business development, revenue generation and soft skills training.
He credits his education at the University of Maryland and its top-ranked counseling and personnel services program (now the counseling psychology, school psychology and school counseling program) with preparing him for his career and giving him the opportunity to learn from leading scholars like George Marx, former dean of the college and head of the Department of Counseling and Personnel Services, and behavioral psychology pioneer Charles Ferster.
“It's the equivalent of having Pavarotti teach you how to sing,” he said. “I love the University of Maryland for the education that I got.”
Tim Symalla ’26, the current recipient of Jaffa's scholarship, chose to major in special education because of the experiences of his uncle, who had osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease. “My Uncle Larry’s special education services dramatically helped him become the strong and confident man that I admired,” he said.
With the award, Symalla added, "I can focus more time on academics and maintaining the high standard I have set for myself as a student and educator, so that I may inspire students as my uncle’s teachers inspired him.”
Dean Kimberly Griffin and Elliott B. Jaffa ’65, A.G.S. ’68, Ed.D. ’73