Matchmakers

_{The new Family Scholarships initiative has a matching component that will leverage gifts to create up to 100 endowed scholarships.}

Funding a scholarship for a deserving Longwood student is now easier than ever before, thanks to an innovative initiative by the Office of Institutional Advancement.

The new Family Scholarships program will create up to 25 scholarships within each of three academic colleges and the athletics department, for a total of up to 100 scholarships across campus. Each of the four groups is spearheaded by a matching pledge of up to $375,000 by a philanthropist. All four of the matching pledges have been made:

• Mike and Tammy Bird ’81 Jones for the Cook-Cole College of Arts and Sciences
• Janie Wall ’67 and Ron Evans for the College of Education and Human Services
• The Longwood Student Investment Club for the College of Business and Economics
• The Brock-Ramsey Family of Scholarships for Longwood athletics

“We talked a lot about Longwood and the type of students who go to Longwood,” Ron Evans said. “We love the idea of helping to fund 25 new scholarships. We’ve seen the value of scholarships and what one means to a student. The key is to make college more affordable for a student who really needs it.”

The structure of a Family Scholarship gift makes it particularly powerful. Scholarships require a minimum of $25,000 to be sustainable, a giving level that is out of reach for many families. But with a $15,000 gift to a Family Scholarship, the title donor will match another $15,000, establishing a new endowed scholarship that will be awarded to generations of Lancers in perpetuity. Of that $30,000, $5,000 will go into an expendable scholarship fund, making $1,000 scholarships immediately available to students for up to five years. The remaining $25,000 will go into the endowment, ensuring future generations of Lancers will receive scholarships as well.

“Longwood made me who I am today,” said Tammy Bird Jones, who completed a long tenure on the Longwood Alumni Board in 2019 after serving a year as president. “I went to a large high school, but Longwood was perfect for me. It’s small enough that you can form and foster relationships with advisers and professors, and large enough that there are a lot of opportunities for leadership. I feel as if I’m home when I’m on campus, and to have the opportunity to be a part of future students’ lives as they pursue an education at Longwood is really very special to me.”

The Lancer Student Investment Club is providing the match for the Family Scholarships benefiting the College of Business and Economics. The club runs a highly successful fund that regularly outperforms the S&P Index and has propelled alumni to coveted jobs on Wall Street.

“This is a powerful statement by Longwood citizen leaders,” said Dr. Tim O’Keefe, dean of the College of Business and Economics. “These students in the investment club recognize the value of the education they are receiving and are committing to giving others the chance at that same opportunity. That’s an enormous commitment, and we are all very proud of them for their generosity and leadership.”

The Longwood Family Scholarship Program will end after June 30, 2020, or when all available matching funds have been exhausted (whichever happens first). Gifts will be matched on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you are interested in participating in the Longwood Family Scholarship Program, contact Longwood’s development office at [email protected] or 434-395-2028.