Jean Berger Estes ’75 and Robey Estes ’74 recently made a commitment of $1.5 million to William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business to help attract high-caliber students to W&M now and into the future. The couple established the Robey and Jean Estes Business Scholarship Endowment, which will provide need-based scholarships support to business students.
William & Mary has received a $19.3 million gift from an alumna who wishes to remain anonymous to establish a landmark Institute for Integrative Conservation (IIC). The gift will position the university as a global leader in transformational research to protect ecosystems and safeguard world populations. It will cultivate leaders prepared to drive policy, advance advocacy and inspire action at the local, national and international levels.
Over the last year I’ve had the chance to reflect on the importance of family. When I say family, I don’t just mean the traditional sense of family. I mean those in our lives who lift us as we climb, who help us overcome hardships and who remain a meaningful part of our journey — no matter where life takes us.
With nearly 70 years of service combined, Faye Shealy, associate dean for admission, and Jim Heller, director of The Wolf Law Library, announced their retirements upon completion of the 2018–19 academic year.
As technology continues to change the world at ever-increasing rates, some of the university’s most innovative transitions are happening in the William & Mary Libraries. Cherished for decades as a cornerstone of our thriving university community, the library’s unwavering focus on linking people with ideas continues to evolve in dynamic, forward-looking ways.
The new Office of Student Veteran Engagement is up and running as a one-stop shop for the more than 200 veterans and active service members who attend William & Mary.
Days like Giving Tuesday, which is Dec. 3 this year, remind us of the amazing power of philanthropy, and how even small gifts can make a huge difference, not only in the lives of the recipients but also in the many lives that person goes on to touch.
William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business is tapping into its network of accomplished alumni by asking them to refer the next generation of bright minds to the Master of Accounting (MAcc) program.
More than 400 people gathered at this year's Scholarships Luncheon during Homecoming & Reunion Weekend. Several students and alumni shared their powerful stories of how scholarships made their bold moments possible. Special guest Jill Ellis ’88, L.H.D. ’16, two-time World Cup winner, told the audience how her scholarship to W&M changed the trajectory of her life.
William Sterling’s ’59 early interest in art prompted him to become a fine arts major at William & Mary. One of his thoughts before his death on New Year’s Eve last year was to leave a gift that would benefit the university’s Department of Art & Art History.
Megan Dorward ’07 is no stranger to the impact and importance of private giving. As a founding member of the Society of 1918, a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and a former member of the Annual Giving Board, she has made giving back to William & Mary an important part of her life. Now, she and her fiancé, Richard Brahan, are using their wedding as an opportunity to encourage others to join them in giving back and to create a lasting impact on others’ lives. In lieu of a traditional registry, they have established the Megan Dorward & Richard Brahan Wedding Scholarship and have encouraged their loved ones to make financial contributions to it in celebration of their wedding.
The Han Zhang and Jinlan Liu Family Foundation recently established a $100,000 faculty research endowment for the Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies (APIA) program at William & Mary.
One year after opening, students say the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center has left a lasting impact on campus life through services, education, programming and activities that promote a healthy lifestyle.
Gale Gibson Kohlhagen '69 and Steven Kohlhagen '69 have remained loyal to William & Mary over the years by giving of their time, talent and philanthropic support. They are using planned and outright giving to make a profound impact on William & Mary for generations to come. The Kohlhagens' longtime support of the university includes volunteering, creating a professorship and scholarship and most recently serving on their 50th Reunion class committee earlier this year.
William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business will provide automation software to 400 incoming students this fall, thanks to a generous commitment of more than $4 million in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology from UiPath. This partnership gives the Mason School the distinction of being the first business school in the country to give a UiPath "robot" to every student.
It’s hard to believe that summer break is about to come to a close — although the blistering heat in the ’Burg remains — and the new academic year will begin in a little over a week. There’s so much to look forward to in our final year of the For the Bold campaign and there are countless opportunities to make an impact on the university and all its students, faculty and alumni in the next 10 months.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded William & Mary a $1 million grant to support inclusive research, teaching and community engagement around the legacies of slavery and racism.
William & Mary’s $1 billion For the Bold campaign is roaring forward, with nearly $900 million raised to date.
William & Mary returned to its royal roots during the May 28 For the Bold campaign celebration in London in honor of the nearly 9,000 alumni, family and friends that comprise the university’s international community.
The Class of 1969 raised over $20.7 million for their 50th Class Reunion. They also achieved a high participation rate, with 54% of classmates giving back to William & Mary.
William & Mary celebrated its For the Bold campaign in South Hampton Roads last week. The region is home to more than 16,000 alumni, parents, family and friends of the university.
Create a life you can be proud of. I live by this mantra every single day. For me, this means carving out time creating new memories with my growing family, volunteering and giving back to William & Mary — the place that shaped who I am today.
Since the start of the For the Bold campaign, $1 million has been raised through the Arts & Sciences Annual Fund. The fund is classified as unrestricted funding. This type of funding gives the leadership within Arts & Sciences the flexibility to meet the most pressing needs of William & Mary and to invest strategically in innovative initiatives. It also enables the university to deliver a distinct educational experience that inspires creativity, flexibility and forward thinking.
The Plumeri Awards for Faculty Excellence are back, and they are more competitive than ever before.
The threat of gun violence is built into Julia Gibson’s ’22 consciousness. From the Sept. 11 attacks when she was only a toddler, to the Virginia Tech shooting when she was 7, the threat has been a persistent possibility. When the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting occurred last fall she was an 18-year-old freshman at William & Mary and this time she had something to say.
One Tribe One Day 2019 was bigger, better and bolder than ever before, with 13,144 donors giving on a single day. Nearly $2.5 million was raised for areas across the university.
The Society of 1918 is William & Mary's giving society by women, for women. It supports the Alumnae Initiatives Endowment, which will fund enriching programming that brings W&M women together to strengthen their bonds with one another and with alma mater. Aili Espigh ’17 is the youngest charter member.
After a momentous Charter Day weekend — which included the inauguration of President Rowe, the re-investiture of Chancellor Gates ’65, L.H.D. ’98 and a celebration of 326 years of William & Mary history — we are ready to move forward with renewed enthusiasm.
In 1693, King William and Queen Mary signed a charter to found a college across the Atlantic in a distant overseas colony. Signing that charter, they couldn’t have imagined what the next 326 years had in store for their little Virginia college, but they knew they wanted to create an institution that would last “for ever.” “For ever” — even at the university’s birth with centuries of uncertainty ahead, its founders put no limits on William & Mary’s future.
Julian Fore ’71 has never forgotten the generosity of the donor who funded the scholarship that made it possible for him to spend one year abroad at the University of St Andrews. While there he was exposed to works of art that forever changed his perspective of the world outside of Virginia.
Ariel BenYishay, AidData’s (aiddata.org) chief economist and associate professor of economics, shares his thoughts on the Cloudera Foundation’s award. AidData is a research lab located within William & Mary’s Global Research Institute. BenYishay reflects on how this new partnership will help advance the work AidData has been pioneering for over a decade.
Making lemonade from lemons. This proverbial phrase certainly applies to Rachel Becker ’19. Against the odds, the William & Mary senior has turned a challenging childhood into a compassionate mission to help others. Now, thanks in part to a Parents Fund scholarship, she is well on her way to pursuing her dream to support child and family rights.
WMAA Executive Director Marilyn Ward Midyette ’75 on the Alumni House Expansion
The thank you letters were all addressed to Ethan Winter ’14. One after one, each student had written to thank Winter for helping to make their research possible at William & Mary. Winter’s parents found the letters in fall 2016 while cleaning out his apartment after he passed away at the age of 24. Since finding those letters, the Winters have made it their personal mission to pass Ethan’s generosity on to others.
Over the last several years, Facebook has been a lightening rod for controversy, as scholars and pundits alike debate the social media platform’s impact on civil discourse, both in the United States and beyond. With a new $50,000 grant from Facebook, Associate Professor of Government Jaime Settle and her students hope to determine how users process political information encountered there and why they engage with different types of content, including fake news.
