The Park Scholarships has been granted two anonymous donations this year to provide significant support for the program and its students. Given as co-named Park Scholarships, each donation totals $350,000 for a cumulative $700,000. The assistance comes from families deeply entrenched in the Park community, and were provided as both a cash gift and an estate gift.
The Park friends providing the cash gift say it all started with a $1,000 enrichment grant many years before—a gift which planted the seeds of change in their minds. Inspired by the Park Scholarships’ commitment to engage students in professional and personal enrichment experiences in the U.S. and abroad, the couple said it “changed our thinking on higher education as a worthy recipient of our giving.”
Further armed with the knowledge that few families invest back into the program, the anonymous donors decided to take action by making their largest donation yet. The purpose of the new pledge is to contribute towards “a self-sustaining Park Scholarship Program”—a challenge issued several years prior by the Park Foundation to the wider community.
Understanding the importance of growing the program’s endowment, the donors knew that to rise to the occasion would be a great benefit “for NC State and for [developing] our future leaders.” Their hope is the financial support will inspire other families to advance the program through related offerings.
With the second donor couple, the estate gift was similarly given in response to the challenge delivered by the Park Foundation, but was largely motivated by the desire to honor those who came before them. According to the contributors, their family immigrated to the U.S. with the anticipation of creating a new life for themselves and their children. It was “through their struggles, efforts to fully assimilate into American life and culture, and frugality, we became the product of their imagination and hard work. We are now able to share their important story and both embrace what they accomplished with few initial resources while indirectly honoring those other families who have embarked on a similar journey.”
Having supplied the Park Scholarships with physical and emotional support over the years, the patrons were provided an inside look at how the program and its enrichment experiences engage students “in the process of discovery, service, and leadership while exhibiting strong ethical and moral values.” On a daily basis, they saw the importance of encouraging students to follow their passions and developing them in key areas to facilitate the growth of lifelong learners and leaders.
Donations to the Park program is an investment in exceptional students and affords them the opportunity to develop their outstanding potential in scholarship, leadership, service, and character. Your gift to the Park Scholarships is more than a gift; it is an investment in remarkable students who repay that investment many times over in their efforts to solve the grand challenges of society.
Please consider supporting future Park Scholars today.
posted 2017.11.28