The official Tumblr of Virginia Tech's Office of University Development, located at the Gateway Center on the corner of University City Blvd., and Prices Fork Rd., in Blacksburg, Va. This website is maintained by the Development Communications team headed by Albert Raboteau, Erica Stacy, Annie McCallum, and Rich Polikoff. Enter your email address to get updates in your inbox: Delivered by FeedBurner
In 1945, after graduating from Virginia Tech with a bachelor’s in animal sciences, George Allen took a job with the Virginia Cooperative Extension. His career with the organization spanned more than 30 years. To give back to the university “that is like a second family,” Allen funded two endowments. One supports 4-H, and the other provides a scholarship. Read more.
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Cultivating the legacy of “The Cheese King”
For Betsy Hulvey a visit to the Virginia Tech campus “feels like coming home.”
She grew up playing on the Drillfield, watching the Corps of Cadets train, learning to swim in Memorial Gym, and organizing grand adventures at the Duck Pond.
“Burruss Hall was like a castle in my very own fairy tale,” Hulvey remembers.
The granddaughter of William Dabney Saunders, for whom Saunders Hall is named, Hulvey grew up visiting Blacksburg and said she even lived on campus in Solitude with her grandparents for a period of time.
Her memories of those special times, along with her strong family ties to the university, fueled Hulvey’s decision to include a gift to Virginia Tech in her estate.
“I have left a bequest to the dairy science department in memory of my grandfather, because I fear for the future of the independent dairy farmer in this country, because I love and have great pride for Virginia Tech, and because I know that my parents would want and approve of this gift,” she said.
Her grandfather joined the staff of what was then Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1890, serving as the director of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station. Saunders later held positions in dairy and animal husbandry, before taking a leave of absence to serve as Virginia’s first dairy and food commissioner, a role he held for seven years.Â
As commissioner, Saunders organized a system of testing herds that resulted in the near elimination of tuberculosis in dairy cows across the state. In 1915, he returned to the university where he taught, served as an Extension specialist, and continued to distinguish himself in his field.
After developing a new process for making cheese Saunders was dubbed “The Cheese King of Virginia,” Hulvey said.
“During the depression, the farmers were struggling to sell their milk for a fair price,” she explained. “Using my grandfather’s cheese process, they formed a cooperative and were able to improve the market price of milk in the area.”
Although Hulvey attended Longwood University, many of her relatives, including both parents, graduated from Virginia Tech. Her brother, Paul Victor Kelsey Jr., holds three degrees from the university.Â
“Until my marriage in 1964 to a UVA graduate, I never considered there was any other school in the state of Virginia,” Hulvey quipped. “My late husband went on to be a member of the UVA Board of Visitors in the late 1990s, but I never let him forget my allegiance was to the Hokies, not the Hoos, whenever they engaged in any athletic endeavor.”
While her husband, the late John Thomas Hulvey Sr., completed his medical education, Hulvey worked first as a high school English teacher and later as an elementary school librarian. In 1969, the couple relocated to Abingdon, Virginia, where she focused on raising their three children, John, Elizabeth, and Margaret.
Over the years Hulvey has been actively involved in civic affairs and is a long-time member of the Hokie Club. She enjoys gardening, spending time with family and friends, and, of course, visiting Blacksburg as often as possible.
“I like to come to Blacksburg to catch up with my family and to shop,” Hulvey said. “Between my mother’s family and my father’s, you can’t swing a cat in Southwest Virginia without hitting a cousin.”
Hulvey describes her life as ordinary, but admits that it has had several extraordinary moments.Â
“While my husband was on the Board of Visitors at UVA, I participated in a dinner with former Soviet statesman Mikhail Gorbachev and attended a luncheon with the Queen of Denmark,” she recalled.Â
At the age of 56, Hulvey earned her pilot’s license and, together with her husband, bought a plane.
“We had a home in the Outer Banks, and I thought that I could get to the beach faster if I flew,” she said. “What I didn’t count on was the weather. If it was good flying weather here, it was bad there, and vice versa.”
Hulvey is proud of her family history and its connections to Virginia Tech. Through her estate gift, she expects to help both the university and the dairy industry, adding to her family’s considerable legacy of advancing dairy science at Virginia Tech.
“Being from rural Virginia, I understand the challenges that face farming families,” Hulvey said. “I hope that my gift will promote the farming economy and support those that carry on the agricultural tradition that is so much a part of my family history.”
Nneoma Nwankwo named Virginia Tech's Undergraduate Student of the Year
Nneoma Nwankwo of Lagos, Nigeria, who will graduate in May with a degree in political science from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, was a recipient of the Overton R. Johnson Scholarship and the Accenture Scholarship.
In 2014, Nwankwo was awarded the Austin Michelle Cloyd Fellowship for Social Justice for her proposal to pursue service-oriented MHM research in West Africa. Read more about Nwankwo.
Thermo Fisher Scientific is providing the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech with equipment and funds to advance DNA sequencing research.
In support of the institute's mission, Thermo Fisher has made an in-kind contribution of $162,340 in new equipment and committed $200,000 in support of research using the equipment. Learn more.
The Flint water crisis, Virginia Tech, and philanthropy
Virginia Tech's Marc Edwards (pictured above left) and his team of research scientists and students have been catapulted into the national spotlight. Countless people around the country now know their work helped expose the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
On Jan. 27, Edwards appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Tonight, Edwards and his team will give a presentation in the Quillen Auditorium, located in Virginia Tech's Goodwin Hall, at 635 Prices Fork Road, in Blacksburg, where they will provide an overview of their efforts.
Edwards is the Charles Lunsford Professor, within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Named professorships such as the one he holds are established by donors, and help advance the research and teaching of our extraordinary faculty.
Philanthropy has also helped Maggie Carolan (pictured above right), who is a member of Edwards'Â research team. The undergraduate from Stafford, Virginia, received a scholarship and has benefited from a separate fund supporting undergraduate research.
To learn more about Marc Edwards and his team’s work visit their website or catch tonight’s presentation.Â
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Carilion Clinic’s generous partnership with Virginia Tech was celebrated during the university’s Dec. 1 men’s basketball game against Northwestern.
In August, the university named the floor in its Cassell Coliseum the Virginia Tech Carilion Court in recognition of a generous sponsorship of university athletics to be used to fund scholarships and strategic initiatives, as well as to support public-health awareness.
Carilion Clinic President and CEO Nancy Agee (pictured holding a framed picture with university President Timothy D. Sands) has described the sponsorship as an exciting extension of the strategic partnership her organization and the university share through programs such as the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute.
“At the end of the day, our mission is improving health,” Agee has said. “Helping people live a healthy lifestyle is our main goal, and what a wonderful place, here at Cassell Coliseum, to make that happen.”
The health resources today’s Hokies have come from the vision, dedication, and generosity of Charles Schiffert. A medical doctor, he is the namesake and former director of university’s Schiffert Health Center, as well as a generous donor.
While he headed up the center it dramatically increased its services. During his 15 years as center director he added more doctors, a nurse-staffed clinic, an allergy clinic, a women’s clinic, and a pharmacy. Schiffert created the student health service’s first educational program and sought to give back to the center to address preventable health problems. In 2008, he made a $1 million commitment to the university to create the Dolores S. Schiffert Health Education Endowment, named for his wife of more than 50 years, who died in 2007.
The Blacksburg resident was back on campus Tuesday where he met with Rhonda Mitcham, health center associate director for finance and administration, and Chris Wise, assistant vice president for student affairs (pictured above).
Altria and the Coca-Cola Foundation support first-generation college students
Generous gifts from Altria and the Coca-Cola Foundation are helping to support students who are the first in their families to attend college. Representatives from the Coca-Cola Foundation and Altria were on campus recently where they talked with students (pictured above).
Altria supports the Presidential Scholarship Initiative. The initiative, created in 2008, gives low-income Virginia residents the opportunity to attend Virginia Tech, helping to keep higher education accessible to the state’s most talented students regardless of family income. In particular, the program targets first-generation college students.
The Coca-Cola Foundation's recent gift will also support first-generation college students at Virginia Tech. Grant funds from the foundation will provide six scholarships to first-year students who are the first in their immediate families to attend college.Â
Virginia Tech alumna helps Hokies and children across the world through philanthropy
Editors note: A version of this story will appear in the fall edition of Virginia Tech magazine, focusing on Virginia Tech alumna Bridget Ryan Berman’s philanthropic work with her nonprofit miraclefeet, as well as her alma mater.
When Bridget Ryan Berman’s son was born with bilateral clubfoot, in some ways she felt vulnerable.
“I didn’t know what to do,” she said of Reese, now a healthy 15-year-old. “I didn’t know what [the impairment] meant in terms of his life.”
Ryan Berman and her husband, Roger, quickly found themselves learning about the relatively common congenital birth defect, which affects one of every 750 children born.
Once they had settled on a method of care for Reese and knew he would be fine, the couple asked themselves how they could help other children.
According to the Global Clubfoot Initiative, 80 percent of children born each year with clubfoot live in low- and middle-income countries with limited access to treatment. As a result, more than a million children live untreated and unable
to walk properly, making clubfoot the leading cause of physical disability in the world.
“We felt it was just really important to help as many children as we could,” Ryan Berman said.
In 2006, the Bermans created the nonprofit “miraclefeet,” which generates awareness about the birth defect that causes one or both feet to turn inward. The nonprofit works with local partners in developing countries to treat clubfoot.
Ryan Berman, the CEO of Victoria’s Secret Direct, has given her time and lent her business acumen to the nonprofit, which recently expanded to a 13th country and has treated more than 10,000 children. She is a 1982 graduate of Virginia Tech and has also generously supported the university.
She said she’s drawn to philanthropy that impacts her life. Ryan Berman’s work has not only helped Hokies, but children and their families all over the world.
Without the intervention miraclefeet provides, children with clubfoot in developing nations face grim prospects because of the likelihood the defect will go untreated.
“These children are very likely to have terrible, terrible lives,” said miraclefeet Executive Director Chesca Colloredo-Mansfeld. “For a relatively easy and inexpensive intervention, you can put that child’s life back onto a normal trajectory.”
To treat clubfoot, the nonprofit uses the Ponseti Method, entailing a series of plaster casts worn for four to six weeks. The treatment costs approximately $250 per child.
Without treatment, children face stigma and discrimination because families are ashamed of the defect; and because walking is so difficult, children may be unable to access education and healthcare, Colloredo-Mansfeld said. Children with clubfoot are subject to higher risk of neglect, poverty, and physical and sexual abuse, she added.
“It’s hard to prevent poverty, and it’s hard to prevent suffering in the world,” Colloredo-Mansfeld said. “But these children’s disability can be easily fixed.”
It’s a mission that Ryan Berman has been actively involved in since miraclefeet began in 2006. Colloredo-Mansfeld said the Bermans, both of whom sit on the group’s board of directors, are highly engaged, often providing expertise and visiting clinics.
“They feel very strong connections to parents of the kids,” Colloredo-Mansfeld said. “They tell families about their experiences and show them photos of Reese.”
Berman said many parents don’t understand this defect is completely treatable. Her goal is to help.
“This is a way to truly change a child’s life,” Ryan Berman said.
>> For more on Ryan Berman, read the the fall edition of Virginia Tech magazine, available Oct. 15.
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Virginia Tech’s acclaimed marching band finally has a home of its own, thanks in part to generous donors.
For 41 years the Marching Virginians have performed for hundreds of nationally televised football games and parades across the United State, but the group hasn’t had a dedicated practice facility or place to store instruments.
“The band has lived a nomadic life,” said Dave McKee, its director for 30 years and senior instructor in the School of Performing Arts.
But that ends this year.
The new Marching Virginians Center is located on Southgate Drive within sight of Lane Stadium and has a 7,000-square-foot pavilion, restrooms, and a full-size synthetic turf field with lights and public address systems.
More than 280 donors contributed to help make the project possible, including Michael Sciarrino. The former tuba player was behind the effort to have the building named for the band’s former director and current arranger, James Sochinski, and McKee, after their retirement from the university.
“The marching Virginians building is a fitting tribute to the dedication of Dr. James Sochinski and Mr. David McKee, both of whom have passionately served the band for more than 30 years each,” said Sciarrino, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting and lives in Winter Park, Florida. “It’s hard to imagine another part of the university that has had such continuity of leadership.”
For more information on the new facility click here.
The Virginia Tech Carilion Court at Cassell Coliseum naming is now reflected in logos on the floor. Click here for more details on the Carilion Clinic sponsorship, which will also fund scholarships and strategic initiatives, as well as support public-health awareness.
Keely O’Keefe helps women, children in Madagascar
Rising junior Keely O’Keefe has spent her summer in Madagascar where she’s helping women and children in the developing country learn about nutrition and healthy eating.
Working with Virginia Tech faculty member Alisha Farris, O’Keefe interviewed 138 mothers in 10 Malagasy villages about their diets, including what foods they have access to and what they view as healthy or unhealthy.
This work will help develop interventions for the country’s most vulnerable population, and it is possible with help from philanthropy.
O’Keefe and Farris’ efforts are supported by the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the Fralin Life Science Institute, which has benefited from several donor endowed funds at Virginia Tech. The popular program has grown in recent years, increasing its scope and impact.
Click here to read more about O’Keefe’s journey and her work.
They are leaders, experts, researchers, innovators, and visionaries -- and they are all supported by philanthropy.
Some of the most powerful gifts can be funds for fellowships and professorships, which help secure and maintain outstanding faculty. During a Board of Visitors meeting last month, officials appointed or reappointed faculty to several named posts.
We looked earlier at some of these elite educators and how they help not only our students but our communities and our lives. Here’s an another look at more of the faculty who have been named to fellowships or professorships that are supported with generous donations.
>> Professor Peter Rim (top left) is an expert in chemical technology and business management. That powerful combination is important for students seeking careers in the chemical industry. A technical patent expert, Rim’s name appears on 12 patents and more than 20 technical publications.
>> Associate Professor John Taylor (top middle) was recently recognized for his “path-breaking research” about dynamic interpersonal and inter-organizational networks on the outcomes of constructed facilities over their life cycle. He was honored with the American Society of Civil Engineers Construction Institute's 2015 Daniel W. Halpin Award for Scholarship in Construction.
>> Professor Harald Sontheimer (top right) discovered the functional properties of glial cells in the brain. This work led to the discovery of a major new therapeutic approach for the treatment of glioblastoma, the deadliest and most prevalent primary brain tumor in humans. He oversees research at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and has more than $6.3 million in research grant funding.
>> Professor Richard Veilleux (bottom left) has been conducting significant research on the genetic improvement of crops. A collaboration with the International Strawberry Genome Sequencing Consortium and the International Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium resulted in publication of the first sequenced genomes for both the Rosaceae (rose, apple, and others) and Solanaceae (potato, tomato, and others) families.
>> Professor M. Joseph Sirgy (bottom middle) has published more than 200 articles, scholarly books and monographs, and book chapters. He has also co-authored nine textbooks. His research focuses on the contribution real estate makes to consumer quality of life.
>> Professor Weiguo “Patrick” Fan (bottom right) has published 54 peer-reviewed journal articles, six book chapters, and more than 100 peer-reviewed conference proceedings. He is also co-principal investigator on eight research grants, five of which have come from the National Science Foundation.His work focuses on he design and development of new information technologies.
DuPont Building Innovations and Virginia Tech partner to design futuristic building materials
DuPont Building Innovations and Virginia Tech will partner on the development and design of futuristic building materials as part of a new fellowship established by a recent gift from the company.
“We’re excited to partner with Virginia Tech and use our building science to better meet customer needs,” said William Ranson, technology manager, DuPont Building Innovations. “Together, we will help develop new applications that can make buildings more sustainable and better equipped for the needs of the future.”
Virginia Tech Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Macromolecules and Interfaces Institute Tim Long said the partnership builds upon an existing strong relationship between Virginia Tech and DuPont, a company that specializes in the science and engineering of new polymeric products, materials, and services.Â
Long said DuPont already had a strong presence on campus, with representatives serving on departmental advisory boards, and this collaboration will build on that presence.
“This award really represents a key partnership for Virginia Tech because DuPont is located within the commonwealth,” Long said. “Having DuPont in close proximity to Virginia Tech represents an exciting opportunity for our students.”
The fellowship will link DuPont’s Building Innovations business and its Richmond team with Virginia Tech. The two organizations will collaborate on workforce development for students and research into sustainable business solutions.
“This is the first foray into tailoring polymeric materials for the architecture of the future,” Long said. “The gift will be important because it will nurture a better awareness of next-generation materials needs for future housing, specifically as it relates to energy and water management. Water and energy management are two of the most pressing challenges our students will face in the workforce of the future.”
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Virginia Tech is ranked as one of the most elite universities in the world.
Thousands of students graduated this spring with a world-class education.
Our faculty discover and inspire.
Philanthropy helps makes that happen. With a gift, you are part of the university’s extraordinary success, part of the top-tier education our students receive, and part of the innovation and learning our faculty members make possible.
Annual gifts make a difference at Virginia Tech. We are tremendously grateful for this support. If you have given recently, thank you. If you have not had an opportunity to give yet this fiscal year, please visit our secure, online giving page by June 30.
Cathi and Steven House lead study abroad trip in Mexico
Virginia Tech alumni Cathi and Steven House are hosting a group of students in Mexico for five weeks of exploring the area’s architecture.
Their own experiences studying abroad helped shape the Houses as architects, and now they have generously given back to ensure others experience different cultures too.
The Houses are graduates of Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies. They met while studying in Blacksburg, married, and later started their San Francisco firm, House + House Architects. The firm has won more than 50 design awards and been featured in numerous national and international publications.
Because the chance to experience new communities and learn from other cultures is so important to the Houses, in 1998 they endowed the Steven and Cathi House Traveling Scholarship to help pay for student trips abroad. And for years they also have generously given their time to host and organize an annual trip to Mexico.Â
Their generosity is one example of how philanthropy broadens horizons through experiences.
The most recent session of what’s known as the CASA Mexico Study Abroad Program started June 11. The Houses met students at the airport before taking off to explore Mexico City. Here’s a look at some of what they’ve been doing:
>> The group visited the 2,000-year-old World Heritage Site of Teotihuacan. They posed atop the spectacular Pyramid of the Sun, which has a footprint as large as the Great Pyramid at Giza, Steven House said. (top)
>> After their first day in Mexico City, the group dined at the Casa de los Azulejos restaurant. (middle left)
>> Students spent time sketching and photographing their surroundings, including sketching on the roof of architect Luis Barragan's home and studio in Mexico City. (middle right)
>> The group visited the Museum of Memory and Tolerance in Mexico City, where they were captivated by the geometric design of the fountain outside the complex. (bottom)