Sage receives $10M gift; will rename school of education for donor

PHOTOGRAPHER: Michael Goot

The Sage Colleges is renaming its school of education after Donna Esteves, the chairwoman of the colleges’ Board of Trustees, who announced this afternoon she is donating $10 million to the colleges.

The gift, which will be awarded in installments, will go to support the education school and its programs and faculty and outreach initiatives at the colleges in Troy and Albany.

Esteves is a former teacher who graduated from Russell Sage College in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in English. She taught in the Louisiana Bayou and the New Orleans suburbs. She later earned a teaching master’s degree from Tulane University and taught junior college. She then switched careers and sold Mary Kay cosmetics and at one point reached 19th in the country in sales. She and her husband then started a business to retrofit homes to conserve energy.

After selling that business in 2001, Esteves became involved at Sage. She had previously donated $1.5 million in 2010.

“These gifts for me are gifts of the heart because that’s what Sage is for me. It’s in my heart,” Esteves said.