Passing the Baton

 “Columbia has been a gift to my family. I want someone else to have that gift, and hopefully, with endowed scholarships, it’ll be a forever gift.”

by Elizabeth Maynard

When Scott Yagoda, Esq. ’86CC ’92LAW sat down to write his college essay, he used a metaphor that he’d end up carrying throughout his life. Scott wrote about being a member of the Jewish faith and a member of a closely-knit family, and how these identities are like being in a relay race. Each person in the race seizes the baton when it’s their turn, runs with it, gains as much of a lead as they can, and passes it along to whoever is next. 

Scott still uses this metaphor today, and that baton that he would grab and pass down became Columbia itself. Scott has not only shared Columbia with his own children, Lauren ’20CC and Andrew ’25CC, a current freshman, but he has created endowed scholarship funds at Columbia College and Columbia Law School that will allow him to pass that baton to others, in perpetuity. 

Growing Up

It’s not something he knew would be possible when growing up in a middle-class family in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Scott’s grandfather, an immigrant, had come to the U.S. and supported himself and his family with an apple cart in the Lower East Side. His parents did not graduate from college. Still, they believed in the power of education, and sent Scott to Yeshiva of Flatbush, where he excelled and with his grades, extra-curriculars, and that defining essay, was accepted to Columbia as part of the College’s first early-decision class. 

He was drawn to Columbia because of a unique feel he found there. “I felt Columbia was the working man’s Ivy. It was an egalitarian institution. At Columbia, if you did well, they’d give you your shot. And I still feel this way.” 

Columbia College was challenging; Scott concentrated in Economics, and while he enjoyed his classes and made friends, he primarily saw his time at Columbia as a job. Having now seen his children attend Columbia and enjoy college, he admits that he didn’t have great balance, but still, he enjoyed the College and always felt the faculty and the school were good to him. 

“It gave me my swing. It gave me opportunities I wasn’t going to have.”

Columbia: A Yagoda Family Affair

Columbia would only become more intertwined in his life as he grew up. Scott began Columbia Law School, and when he unexpectedly had to take time off when his father took ill, the school welcomed him back a year later. At that point, his wife, Beth, was with him. Scott and Beth shared their first apartment together through Columbia Housing. Beth got a job at Columbia Business School, and years later, their daughter decided after Scott’s 30th reunion that she too would like to go to Columbia. His son, a current freshman, chose Columbia a few years later.  

Sharing Columbia with his wife and children cemented the University’s place in Scott’s heart. The Yagodas still live close to Morningside Heights, allowing Scott to visit his children regularly, to revisit memories with them, and ultimately, to feel that they were never far away. When he thinks about where his family is now, he remarks that because of Columbia, in one generation his family has grown to not only provide a comfortable lifestyle for themselves, but to create that same opportunity for more people. 

“When people ask you where you went to college and you say ‘Columbia’, you feel good about that. It means something to you. You take great pride that the school bettered your situation, and you feel good about what you’ve accomplished. I would never have had the opportunities I’ve had or the education I received but for Columbia. I feel it’s natural to take that blessing and make sure it’s available to people whose situations are not as comfortable or easy as yours. They have to get their swing.” 

Passing the Baton

Scott became involved with Columbia by volunteering, fundraising for Columbia College and Columbia Law School, joining reunion committees, and serving on the Law School’s Board of Visitors. In 2016, he and Beth created the Yagoda Family Scholarship Fund at Columbia Law School and in 2021, they created the Yagoda Family Scholarship Fund at Columbia College. He supports these commitments through a donor advised fund (DAF). 

Scott also designated Columbia College as a beneficiary of a life insurance policy; he specified that 80% is to be added to the Yagoda Family Scholarship Fund and 20% will provide current use unrestricted support in honor of his 35th reunion of the Class of 1986. His future gift qualified Scott to become a member of the 1754 Society—which recognizes individuals who make estate and other planned gifts to Columbia—and Scott now serves as an Ambassador for the Society.

“Why not give a policy? If you don’t need it, give it to the University, and make somebody’s life better. Columbia has been a gift to my family. I want someone else to have that gift, and hopefully, with endowed scholarships, it’ll be a forever gift.” 

In addition to scholarships, Scott is a supporter of the Core Curriculum. He’s grateful for the way the Core broadened his knowledge, but he believes the lessons of the Core go beyond studying literature and the humanities, and the true lesson is actually the bigger idea that we all part of the great relay race he wrote about in his admissions essay more than 40 years ago. 

“Part of what they taught us at Columbia College is that you’re part of a continuous chain of students, and you want this to continue. It’s not a class, but it’s something you learn being here. I’m going to pass off the baton to my kids, and they will continue the chain. They can do whatever they want in their link of the chain, but they’re part of this relay race. My job as a father is to pass the baton to my kids and this is what the gift of education is—giving somebody a chance.”