FAIRFIELD — Fairfield University’s John Charles Meditz College of Arts and Sciences has created the Kevin Kuczo Memorial Fund in recognition of the 17-year-old Fairfield Warde High School student-athlete who died in 2021. Thanks to a $100,000 gift from James and Kristen Kuczo of Kevin’s Afterglow the university created an endowment that will support an annual student award as well as faculty and student research in mental health.
On May 20, faculty gathered from the Psychology and Brain Sciences Department to recognize the Kuzco’s generosity and the opportunities the gift will create for undergraduate research, experiential learning, and academic programming focused on mental health within the department. Through the endowment the university will help students prepare address growing mental health challenges.
“The heart of what they [the department’s faculty] do is connect students to hands-on research experiences that engages the students, which gets them into careers in mental health, counseling, and behavioral neuroscience,” said Dean Richard Greenwald, PhD. “The research the students are doing supervised by their faculty mentors actively improves the discipline itself.”
James Kuczo, who is president and co-founder of Kevin’s Afterglow with his wife Kristen, was thankful for the university’s actions in memory of their son, who played football and lacrosse for Warde. The organization is 501 (c) (3) nonprofit that had $164,188 in revenue and $120,000 in expenses in 2024, according to its fiscal year 2025 990PF IRS form listed on Pro Publica’s Nonprofit Explorer website.
“We want to thank you,” Kevin Kuczo said. “Hearing you talk about empathy and social situations reinforced how important this work is. We originally focused on scholarships, but the research component is important too.”
The endowment and gift are in honor of their son Kevin, who struggled with depression during Covid-19 when there was a shortage of psychiatrists.
The Kuczos are on a mission to make a difference to get more doctors. They were pleased to hear that the department is growing and that students are taking more of an interest in psychology.
“Thank you for making a difference. This is the department that has the pipeline,” James Kuczo added. “We are pleased that the youth are taking more of an interest in psychology.”
