When Stacey Price, AB ’06, was accepted to Washington University in St. Louis in 2002, she was not only thrilled by the opportunity but also about to fulfill an interrupted college dream. Her mother, Marcia Filerman, had been a promising WashU undergraduate in the early 1960s, but a young marriage resulted in her transferring elsewhere to complete her degree. Four decades later, when it was Stacey’s turn to attend college, her mother and father, Arno, made certain she completed her undergraduate studies and crossed the Commencement stage with her degree.
The Filermans took significant financial risks for Stacey to attend WashU, but they could not cover the full cost of tuition. To make up the difference, Stacey relied on a Pell grant and work-study jobs. She also received the Arnold S. Block Memorial Scholarship.
“My parents absolutely glowed when they talked about me at WashU. They visited whenever they could — as if campus was right next door and not five hours south of Chicago.”
Stacey Price
Stacey’s husband, Brian Price, believes her education was among the Filermans’ proudest achievements in life, and she concurs. “My parents absolutely glowed when they talked about me at WashU,” Stacey says. “They visited whenever they could — as if campus was right next door and not five hours south of Chicago.”
Stacey’s parents’ joy and sense of accomplishment in seeing their daughter thrive at WashU was not misplaced. Driven by her undergraduate research experience and motivated by thoughtful faculty mentors in the psychology department, Stacey went on to earn a doctorate in clinical psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Today, she operates her own practice in Chicago, collaborating across fields to advocate for young clients with the confidence and empathy she first developed at WashU. The Filermans’ original commitment now transcends the personal achievements of their daughter, who helps clients from all backgrounds build self-awareness and hone their ability to advocate for themselves. Their investment has become societal – a gift to the world beyond WashU’s walls.
It was, perhaps, inevitable that the Prices would turn to WashU to honor Stacey’s mother and father after their respective deaths in 2021 and 2025. Stacey remains deeply moved by the generosity of her scholarship donor, and she believes her trajectory was fundamentally reshaped by that gift and her parents’ selfless support.
The couple are commemorating the Filermans’ sacrifices — and their confidence in a WashU education — with a $250,000 pledge for scholarships. Their gift will create two undergraduate awards: $200,000 will establish the Arno and Marcia Filerman Endowed Scholarship, while $50,000 will support an annual scholarship in their name. These funds help advance the university’s efforts to increase educational access as part of With You: The WashU Campaign, a fundraising and engagement campaign that launched May 1.
You can help make a WashU education more accessible to students by supporting scholarships through With You.
Brian, a savvy investor and CEO of wealth management at investment firm Mesirow, was strategic about structuring their gift for maximal impact. He and Stacey took advantage of the Catalyst Challenge, made possible through a generous $2.5 million commitment from Lauren and Lee Fixel, BSBA ’02. The challenge matches 25% of new endowed undergraduate scholarship gifts of $200,000 or more and will give the Prices’ endowed fund a $50,000 head start. In this way, the Prices have enjoyed a swift return on their investment, witnessing high-need students benefit in the near term while building a permanent legacy as their endowment reaches its full growth.
In making their gift, Stacey and Brian are continuing a cycle of access and investing in the WashU community that inspired the Filermans’ abiding confidence. When pressed to define what sets the university apart — and what generates such confidence — the Prices offer a striking explanation: WashU’s unique culture of participation.
The university not only offers a variety of opportunities but also encourages students to seize them. As an undergraduate, Stacey joined an a cappella group, served as a resident advisor, and held a leadership role in her sorority. She also assisted Robert Canfield, an emeritus professor of sociocultural anthropology, as part of her work-study job. She credits these experiences with fostering her intellectual breadth and leadership skills.
At WashU, Stacey discovered a tight-knit community that extended even to faculty. Whether they were teaching 100-student statistics lectures or intimate cultural theory seminars, her professors maintained an open-door ethos that reinforced her sense of belonging and purpose.
As the Prices consider their gift, they reflect on Marcia’s interrupted college dream and what such dreams can become when realized. They come back to belonging and purpose. They recognize that access isn’t really about a single student — it’s about what that student, fortified by community, returns to the world. And in the end, they believe scholarships are a powerful investment in collective progress.
