Central Michigan University Athletics
Donor Spotlight - Joanne Golden-Trudell
5/29/2020 10:08:00 AM | Chippewa Fund
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- When Joanne Golden-Trudell was a Central Michigan University student, she worked any number of jobs as she paid her own way to a bachelor's degree.
"There were times that I didn't have a dollar in my pocket," Golden-Trudell said. "I recall that Rice-A-Roni was 19 cents so I could always have Rice-A-Roni. Anytime somebody needed something done and they were willing to pay me for it, I did it."
Yes, she did it. And today, she is doing what she had always been taught to do by her father and what she passed on to her own children: giving back.
She and her son Matthew are longtime benefactors to several CMU Athletics programs, including gymnastics, volleyball and baseball, and she has made a commitment to the Chippewa Champions Center, the transformational facility which is now under construction inside Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
Along with a brother and a nephew, Golden-Trudell has endowed the Schuette Family College of Business Administration Scholarship which helps students who hail from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She also is a backer of the university's Student Emergency Fund and the CMU Student Food Pantry.
"Even if it's just a little bit, every little bit helps the person that needs it," said Golden-Trudell, a long-time football season-ticket holder. "Sometimes you have nothing as a student. I think it's very important to have these types of funds or these types of monies available for those students who need it. I know they're out there because I was one of them."
Golden-Trudell is a native of Wallace, pop. 1,541, on the western end of the UP, a stone's throw from the Menominee River which separates Michigan and Wisconsin. She enrolled at CMU in 1976 at the urging of her brother, then a CMU student.
"I'm a smalltown girl and Central was a big college to me, but it also felt like home," she said. "I fell in love with Mount Pleasant and the people. Because I always had to have a job and work, I got to know quite a few of the people who had lived in Mount Pleasant for their entire lives. I fit well in town, I enjoyed it, and so I ended up staying and making Mount Pleasant my home and raising my family."
After earning her degree in secondary education with a specialty in communication disorders in 1979, Golden-Trudell went to work as a speech and language pathologist. In the 1980s, she transitioned to real estate and property management, a field in which she has carved out a highly successful career. Today, she is a regional vice president at KMG Prestige.
She's never forgotten where she came from and what it was like to pinch pennies as a college student. She has continually drawn upon her upbringing and a principle of selflessness passed onto her and her four brothers by her father, a lifelong volunteer and community champion in Wallace.
"You always have to do something for the place that you live in and you always have to give back your time," she said. "It was just ingrained in me.
"I've passed that on to both of my kids. I don't care what age they were, we were out doing something, whether it was at Emmanuel Lutheran Church serving Thanksgiving dinner, or it was the Care Day where we were out raking somebody's leaves or fixing their porch. It's just a natural thing. I believe that you always, always, always have to give back, and give what you can."
That philanthropic bent for both Golden-Trudell and her son Matthew extends to the university and its athletics program. Golden-Trudell recognizes how important athletics is as an enriching component to the overall educational process, and she herself is living proof of what an education can do for a person.
"I think sports are very important just in learning how to work on a team, becoming a well-rounded person," she said, adding that athletics is among the many extracurriculars, such as the arts, that can help accomplish that goal. "I just think that all of these things really create a better person. They teach you things, teach you things about life.
"Central is important to me for that reason. I wouldn't be where I am today, and be successful, if it wasn't for CMU. Whatever it is at Central I will always help in whatever way I can because it did a lot for me."
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"There were times that I didn't have a dollar in my pocket," Golden-Trudell said. "I recall that Rice-A-Roni was 19 cents so I could always have Rice-A-Roni. Anytime somebody needed something done and they were willing to pay me for it, I did it."
Yes, she did it. And today, she is doing what she had always been taught to do by her father and what she passed on to her own children: giving back.
She and her son Matthew are longtime benefactors to several CMU Athletics programs, including gymnastics, volleyball and baseball, and she has made a commitment to the Chippewa Champions Center, the transformational facility which is now under construction inside Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
Along with a brother and a nephew, Golden-Trudell has endowed the Schuette Family College of Business Administration Scholarship which helps students who hail from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She also is a backer of the university's Student Emergency Fund and the CMU Student Food Pantry.
"Even if it's just a little bit, every little bit helps the person that needs it," said Golden-Trudell, a long-time football season-ticket holder. "Sometimes you have nothing as a student. I think it's very important to have these types of funds or these types of monies available for those students who need it. I know they're out there because I was one of them."
Golden-Trudell is a native of Wallace, pop. 1,541, on the western end of the UP, a stone's throw from the Menominee River which separates Michigan and Wisconsin. She enrolled at CMU in 1976 at the urging of her brother, then a CMU student.
"I'm a smalltown girl and Central was a big college to me, but it also felt like home," she said. "I fell in love with Mount Pleasant and the people. Because I always had to have a job and work, I got to know quite a few of the people who had lived in Mount Pleasant for their entire lives. I fit well in town, I enjoyed it, and so I ended up staying and making Mount Pleasant my home and raising my family."
After earning her degree in secondary education with a specialty in communication disorders in 1979, Golden-Trudell went to work as a speech and language pathologist. In the 1980s, she transitioned to real estate and property management, a field in which she has carved out a highly successful career. Today, she is a regional vice president at KMG Prestige.
She's never forgotten where she came from and what it was like to pinch pennies as a college student. She has continually drawn upon her upbringing and a principle of selflessness passed onto her and her four brothers by her father, a lifelong volunteer and community champion in Wallace.
"You always have to do something for the place that you live in and you always have to give back your time," she said. "It was just ingrained in me.
"I've passed that on to both of my kids. I don't care what age they were, we were out doing something, whether it was at Emmanuel Lutheran Church serving Thanksgiving dinner, or it was the Care Day where we were out raking somebody's leaves or fixing their porch. It's just a natural thing. I believe that you always, always, always have to give back, and give what you can."
That philanthropic bent for both Golden-Trudell and her son Matthew extends to the university and its athletics program. Golden-Trudell recognizes how important athletics is as an enriching component to the overall educational process, and she herself is living proof of what an education can do for a person.
"I think sports are very important just in learning how to work on a team, becoming a well-rounded person," she said, adding that athletics is among the many extracurriculars, such as the arts, that can help accomplish that goal. "I just think that all of these things really create a better person. They teach you things, teach you things about life.
"Central is important to me for that reason. I wouldn't be where I am today, and be successful, if it wasn't for CMU. Whatever it is at Central I will always help in whatever way I can because it did a lot for me."
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