ISSUED: 14 November 2013
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University President Suzanne Shipley and the Shepherd University Foundation hosted a biennial reception for donors and scholars November 10 in the Erma Ora Byrd Hall atrium.
Student scholarship and faculty excellence recipients, their families and friends, faculty, staff, university leadership board representatives, alumni, and friends who have established awards attended the event.
President Shipley gave opening remarks followed by Sue Mentzer-Blair, Foundation board member, who thanked the donors for their gifts and commitment. She is the fund sponsor for the JoAnn Mentzer Endowment for elementary education students and talked about the power of alumni and friends giving back.
“All the students and faculty members being recognized today are the beneficiaries of folks like you and my cousin, people who have cared enough about the future of our young people and our society to establish awards through the Shepherd University Foundation or have contributed to those named awards,” she said.
Jason Carnes, a secondary mathematics education and industrial mathematics junior from Kearneysville, and Charlee Fox, an environmental sustainability senior from Fairmont, thanked Shepherd for the opportunities their Foundation scholarships had given them.
The Shepherd University Scene Stealers performed “Seasons of Love” from the musical Rent. The group includes six Foundation scholars.
Monica Lingenfelter, executive vice president of the Shepherd University Foundation, congratulated the student scholars for successfully competing for privately funded Foundation scholarships and encouraged them to be proud of their accomplishments. She said that those who invested in the recipients’ educations invested in their futures.
“Your Shepherd degree will open doors. The donors who funded your private scholarship award, the Foundation, and university leaders in this room, and so many who are not with us today have helped to open those doors for you,” she said and asked the scholars to remember Shepherd and the generosity they received.
“Someday I hope each of you will stand in a room full of scholars as a Foundation donor and scholarshipsponsor,” she said.
More than 500 endowed and annually funded awards are provided through private gifts to the Foundation. For more information, contact the Shepherd University Foundation, P.O. Box 5000, Shepherdstown, WV 25443, 304-876-5397, e-mail mlingenf@shepherd.edu.
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