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When Su Lee MBA ’94 first stepped foot on the University of Tampa campus, she couldn’t have imagined the impact the school would have on her — or the impact she’d someday have on the ��«Ӱҵampa community.

At the time, she was simply looking to advance with her then-employer, GTE Telecommunications, and she felt earning an MBA was her ticket to the top. She’d started her coursework at the University of South Florida, but between rising at 5:30 a.m. to fit in her daily run before work, a full day at the office and a long commute, she could barely make it to class on time, and once she got there, she was often too tired to pay attention.

So Lee transferred to ��«Ӱҵampa, which was just a short drive from home and work, mainly for logistical reasons. She stayed — and went on to give back to the Spartan community with her time, talent and treasure — because of the rich learning environment she encountered.

Lee specifically recalls that her small ��«Ӱҵampa business classes fostered a culture that was “very friendly and super teaching-oriented.”

“I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge to apply to my corporate work and later our own business thanks to their engaging teaching methods and the use of case studies,” she said.

While earning her MBA, Lee was the backbone of her family’s entrepreneurial venture. At the time, her husband, Bill Place, was in the early stages of building a golf range business, purchasing the first property in 1993. While he worked tirelessly to grow the business, it was the steady income and benefits from Lee’s job that allowed Place to take that leap.

By 1998, Lee left her corporate career to join Place full-time in managing their expanding network of golf ranges and golf courses, which would eventually include eight Tampa Bay area properties. Lee jumped in to help with everything, from total renovation of clubhouses to accounting, finance and HR, and she credits her ability to do so with the financial acumen and business expertise she honed at the Sykes College of Business. “What I learned (at ��«Ӱҵampa), I applied all through my life,” Lee said.

For Lee and Place, who are now in the process of selling their golf properties with an eye on retirement, the decision to give back to ��«Ӱҵampa was an obvious one. “I’ve always had a heart for ��«Ӱҵampa, and Bill knows because I talk about it all the time,” said Lee, who began taking leadership roles in 2008, first as a member in the Board of Fellows, and later joining the Alumni Campaign Steering Committee and Board of Trustees.

Her enthusiasm is contagious; Place plans to volunteer in the Lowth Entrepreneurship Center once the golf business is in the rear-view mirror.

The couple doesn’t just want to support the school, however. They also want to uplift high-achieving Tampa Bay high school students for whom a ��«Ӱҵampa education would normally be out of reach. So this fall, they established the Su Lee and Bill Place Endowed Scholarship to support ��«Ӱҵampa’s Spartan Alliance program, which welcomed its first cohort of scholars in the fall of 2024.

In addition to a scholarship that meets the students’ demonstrated need for tuition, room and board, Spartan Alliance scholars also receive benefits that include peer support, research and internship opportunities.

The program gives students the kind of assistance Lee and Place wished they’d had as students. Paying it forward and helping high-achieving and deserving students “get ahead is more important to us than anything else,” Lee said.��

Lee and Place are thrilled that the golf course business they worked so hard to build now allows them to provide meaningful assistance to students through their endowed scholarship — both today and for generations to come.

What is an endowed scholarship?

An endowed scholarship is a fund specially earmarked for a specific award. The money is invested, and the University awards scholarships to students based on the earned interest.

You can inquire about creating an endowed scholarship by contacting Keith Todd, vice president of development and university relations, at ktodd@ut.edu or (813) 257-3006.