 
President Janelle Ashley, Ph.D.
With your support, this campaign has transformed the lives of our students.Your generosity has been so remarkable that we met our campaign goal of $10 million seven months ahead of schedule. Because of your outpouring of support we took the bold step of raising the bar and set a new goal of $12 million. Our students needed us to see the campaign through to a new finish line with a better result! We have done that, with your help, by raising $12.43 million. Now more than ever, our students need scholarship assistance. Now more than ever, our students need help funding research they are doing with our faculty. Now more than ever, our students need the endowment to continue to grow so it may help the College meet some of the challenges we will face in these uncertain economic times. [ More ] Maintaining our academic excellence during a prolonged period of reduced state funding has resulted in increases in student costs. Scholarships have become vital to reducing the burden on our students—many of whom are the first in their family to attend college and are attracted by our affordability. They help recipients with tuition and fees and build their self-confidence. Your investment in a scholarship is one way you can transform the lives of our students. State funding no longer covers all aspects of academic advancement. New sources of funding for academic enrichment are now crucial to our faculty members’ active engagement with students. They are doing this by involving students in scholarly and applied research projects as well as inviting notable experts to campus to speak to students. Therefore, your contribution to academic development can assist with the intellectual growth of our students in a myriad of ways. The College is not immune from the global financial crisis. To address the fiscal challenge, we have implemented a number of cost-cutting measures, and the entire College community has identified additional areas of future savings or revenues. Further changes may be made. Through it all, we will keep our commitment to our mission. Meanwhile, the Worcester State Foundation endowment is benefiting from the turnaround in teh stock market. This has had a direct impact on the unrestricted fund, which addresses immediate college needs and priorities, as well as scholarship and academic-development funds. I had no doubt in my mind we would reach the campaign’s new $12 million goal. Because it is you, our loyal alumni and friends, who would help us reach this new goal—and give our students “opportunities for a lifetime.” Thank you for your steadfast support! [ Less ] | A Message from David BedardVolunteer Chair, Committee for Scholarships
The year I graduated from Worcester State College marked a time of tremendous change at the College. Not only did 1974 see the first business administration majors receive baccalaureate degrees, but the first baccalaureate degree program for registered nurses in New England began and the Graduate School was founded. It was a defining moment in my life. An elementary education major originally, I jumped at the chance to pursue a business degree. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Suddenly, WSC was providing me with the knowledge and confidence to go out and pursue my goals and dreams. Like so many of my fellow alumni, I was a student of modest means who chose to attend WSC because it was affordable. I was pleased to also find it challenging. My professors—in the elementary education, business administration, and general studies classes—were experts in their fields and inspirational teachers. It was a rewarding experience that has given me countless opportunities. [ More ] When I return to campus, be it to enjoy a Chorale performance or to speak to business students, I see that Worcester State continues to value excellence and affordability. Students are engaged in meticulous research and hands-on training regardless of the program they are studying. They are active in the student community as well as the Greater Worcester and global community. Many of them are, like me, the first in their families to go to college and paying their own college costs. I owe so much of my success in business, with Bedard Enterprises in particular, and publishing my first book, to the outstanding education I received at Worcester State. I’m committed to helping WSC students, especially those who are the first in the families to attend college, achieve their dreams too. So, it is with great pleasure that my family has been able to provide a student scholarship and name WSC a beneficiary of our charitable remainder trust. It is also why I am honored to play a role in shaping the collegiate experience of future WSC students as president of the Worcester State Foundation and the chair of the Opportunity for a Lifetime campaign’s Scholarship Committee. I hope you will join me in raising $4 million for scholarships through this campaign. New scholarships will help the College retain its best and brightest students of modest means. These funds are essential to providing “opportunities for a lifetime” to these students at a time when they bear the greatest burden of reduced state funding. [ Less ] |
