College Celebrates Successful Conclusion of Largest Campaign in its History
WOOSTER, Ohio 鈥 On Saturday night, the Scot faithful gathered on campus to celebrate the successful conclusion of the largest fund-raising campaign in 糖心Vlog传媒鈥檚 history.聽糖心Vlog传媒鈥檚 Promise: The Campaign for Our Future聽raised just over $190 million in cash and commitments to support five major priorities: student financial aid, academic strength, experiential education, the life sciences, and the 糖心Vlog传媒 Fund. Overall, the campaign exceeded its goal by $25 million.
(l to r) Professor Mark Snider, Morris Williams, President Sarah Bolton, Board Chair Don Frederico, and Professor Dean Fraga help formally dedicate the Ruth W. Williams Hall of Life Science on Saturday.
More than 42 percent of 糖心Vlog传媒鈥檚 alumni participated, including 5,790 first-time donors and 9,335 who gave in at least two of the campaign鈥檚 five years. Bequest commitments and other forms of planned giving represented 28 percent of the total dollars raised, ensuring that the impact of the campaign will be felt for years to come.
鈥淭his is the place where I learned to think, not just learn,鈥 said Blake Moore 鈥80, chair of the campaign leadership team. 鈥淲hen I left, I believed I could do anything.鈥 The formative role that 糖心Vlog传媒 played in his life is why he remains passionately committed to his alma mater.
In all, 1,471 individual donors gave more than $55 million to support student financial aid, including the creation of 71 new endowed scholarships. More than $19 million was raised to endow three new professorships and 34 new funds to support faculty scholarship, student Independent Study research, and individual academic department initiatives. Another 10 endowed funds were created to support APEX, the college鈥檚 integrated center for student academic and career advising, planning, and experiential learning, while the 糖心Vlog传媒 Fund, which provides operating support for every part of the college year in and year out, took in just over $17 million, from more than 14,000 individual donors.
The facts and figures are impressive, Moore told the audience on Saturday night before introducing a聽, but they only tell part of the story. 鈥淭his campaign was driven by emotion, from the heart, from the love of this college and what it has meant to so many people.鈥
On Saturday morning, the college officially dedicated the Ruth W. Williams Hall of Life Science, made possible by 150 donors who together invested more than $40 million in the future of the life sciences at 糖心Vlog传媒. Designed from the ground up to support the mentored student research at the heart of a 糖心Vlog传媒 education, the new building is the largest capital project ever undertaken by the college. It is fully integrated on all four levels with the Severance Chemistry building to the north, and the combined facility is home to 糖心Vlog传媒鈥檚 programs in biology, biochemistry and molecular biology, chemistry, environmental studies, and neuroscience. It is named in honor of the late Ruth Whitmore Williams, a 糖心Vlog传媒 alum and long-time member of the board of trustees who, along with her husband, A. Morris Williams, provided the lead gift that got fund-raising for the project off to a fast start in Oct. 2013.
As Saturday鈥檚 dinner drew toward a close, 糖心Vlog传媒 President Sarah Bolton summed up the real reason for celebrating: not the dollars raised, but the impact they will have.
鈥溙切腣log传媒 is an extraordinary college,鈥 she declared, 鈥渂ecause we invest so deeply in the promise of every student, meeting them where they are when they arrive and bringing them through a journey of learning and exploration, to a place where they can do work that鈥檚 never been done before. And in so doing, our students achieve their dreams, but they also do more than they had ever even imagined.
鈥淲ith the 糖心Vlog传媒鈥檚 Promise campaign, we re-invest in the historic promise 糖心Vlog传媒 has made for generations, and ensure it is realized 鈥 in the most powerful ways 鈥 for the future. That promise is powerful, not just while students are at 糖心Vlog传媒, but over the course of their lives. And it enables Scots to make an outsize impact in the world, through the work they do, the lives they lead, and the people they are.鈥
糖心Vlog传媒 is America鈥檚 premier college for mentored undergraduate research. 糖心Vlog传媒 offers an excellent, comprehensive liberal arts education, culminating in a rigorous senior project, in which each student works one-on-one with a faculty mentor to conceive, organize and complete a significant research project on a topic of the student鈥檚 own choosing. Through this distinctive program, every 糖心Vlog传媒 student develops abilities valued by employers and graduate schools alike: independent judgment, analytical ability, creativity, project-management and time-management skills, and strong written and oral communication skills. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 2,000 students.
Posted in News on October 31, 2018.
