Alumna, faculty member extends support to Lancaster campus students through The OHIO Match

Lillian Zarzar graduated from Ohio University’s Athens campus in 1970, started teaching at the Lancaster campus in 2011 and recently established a scholarship as a means of giving back to her alma mater-turned-employer and creating opportunities for future Bobcats.

Lillian Zarzar, BSJ ’70, has seen the transformative nature of an Ohio University education from two unique perspectives—first as an undergraduate on OHIO’s Athens campus and now as a faculty member on the Lancaster campus.

Those experiences have inspired this OHIO alumna and adjunct professor of communication studies to extend the support she gives to students inside the classroom to the funding that helps get them there and sees them through to graduation.

The Lillian Zarzar Communication Studies Scholarship benefits full-time undergraduates who demonstrate financial need and academic merit on Ohio University’s Lancaster campus, with preference given to students majoring in communication studies.

Zarzar established the scholarship through The OHIO Match, an undergraduate scholarship investment program through which Ohio University has pledged up to $25 million to strength its endowed scholarship program. Partnering with donors to maximize the impact of their gifts, the University is providing $0.50 for every dollar committed to eligible scholarship endowments throughout the duration of the six-year program, which ends June 30. The OHIO Match was recently expanded to include OHIO’s regional campuses and donor-specified programs.

“This is my way of leaving a legacy,” Zarzar said of the scholarship. “It’s my way of giving back to the University and also giving an opportunity for others to have their chance to live their dreams.”

Zarzar credits her OHIO student experience with allowing her to grow as a person and laying the foundation for her professional success.

“The years I spent at OU were very significant in my life,” Zarzar said. “I was there during some of the most exciting and tumultuous years of the University and the country at that time. … It gave me an opportunity to grow as a person, and I felt that I belonged there.”

As an undergraduate, Zarzar served on several committees and as president of the Bryan Hall Council and vice president of what was then College Green’s centralized hall council. She recalled Friday night MIA (Movies in the Auditorium); the time former-OHIO-student-turned-Hollywood-actor Paul Newman visited campus; and her favorite tree, a sycamore tree on the walkway between Ellis Hall and Alden Library that she would hug every time she passed it.

She also vividly remembers the moments leading up to and after the closing of campus in May 1970 when increasingly violent clashes between students and National Guardsmen erupted following the fatal shootings at Kent State University.

A resident assistant in Scott Quad, at the time OHIO’s only co-ed residence hall, Zarzar recalled students climbing the walls to get into the building in the midst of riots and the work she and her colleagues had to do to close down the hall after students left campus.

“We were running around closing doors and locking everything and not knowing what to do and getting information about making sure that students were safe,” Zarzar said. “Those riots were something. It was just an amazing, amazing time.”

After graduating, Zarzar moved to New York City where she was a bilingual tour guide at the United Nations. She returned to her hometown of Lima, Ohio, for a brief stint as marketing director at WCIT/WLSR Radio before accepting a position in admissions at Ohio State University’s Lima campus, eventually being promoted to its main campus in Columbus. While in Lima, Zarzar enrolled at Bowling Green State University, earning a master’s degree in speech communication with an emphasis on interpersonal and public communication.

In 1992, Zarzar launched her own business, The Zarzar Group, and became a professional speaker, trained and certified through the Demartini Institute. She worked for both SkillPath Seminars and Fred Pryor Seminars, spending the next 15-plus years training individuals and conducting workshops around the world.

“I spoke on five continents and in all 50 states, so I had quite the run,” Zarzar said. “I would teach in all these nations and conduct seminars in communication skills, interpersonal skills, the art of diplomacy, and the art of communicating effectively.”

In 2009, she got off the road, staying in Columbus and focusing on The Zarzar Group, which provides communication coaching and services to businesses, organizations and individuals. By then, Zarzar had fallen in love – with teaching.

Zarzar was sitting at a roundtable discussion in May of 2011 with a group of women from the National Association of Women Business Owners when she mentioned the possibility of teaching at Ohio University. One of the women replied that her best friend was the chair of the communication studies department at OHIO’s Lancaster campus and that she would share Zarzar’s information with her. While at the Demartini Institute in September 2011, Zarzar received the call that, due to an emergency, a course in public speaking needed an instructor. She flew back from Houston the next day, and Zarzar started teaching at the campus that fall.

“OU Lancaster has been very good to me in terms of offering me an opportunity to teach and do what I love,” she said.

On the campus, Zarzar said she finds inspiration not only in the dedicated faculty and staff but also in her students, many of whom are first-generation students who work hard, pay for their educations on their own and sometimes don’t receive encouragement from their loved ones.

“Their dedication is inspiring,” Zarzar said, thus their dedication inspires her to do what she can to help them succeed. “I choose to teach life skills as well as communication skills,” she added.

Inside her classroom, students hone the skills needed to communicate and express themselves effectively because, as a business owner, Zarzar has seen how the lack of those skills inhibits people’s success.

“The ability to express information effectively builds confidence, credibility and composure,” she said.

With the Lillian Zarzar Communication Studies Scholarship, Zarzar hopes to put more Ohio University Lancaster students in a position to succeed.

“To those who receive this scholarship, I would want them to know that somebody cared enough to offer them a foot up and to appreciate what it takes to be an effective communicator,” she said.

The OHIO Match program ends June 30, 2019. To contribute to this scholarship and other eligible scholarship endowments, to create your own endowed scholarship and for more information, click here or call 740-592-3863.