The Ridley Scholarship Fund is an organization that contributes to a superior learning environment at the University by providing scholarships to African-American students of high academic caliber and addressing issues of importance to African-American students and alumni. In response to the recent violent, racially-motivated protests at the University and in Charlottesville, the Ridley Scholars will produce an outreach video during the 2018 calendar year to be released in November 2018. The video will target prospective African-American students and is estimated to impact 20,000 prospective students and their families. A hired videographer will record footage of several student-planned events as well as testimonials from University students, faculty, and alumni for the video.
Staff Spotlight: Andrea Seese
Please welcome Andrea Seese to the Jefferson Trust staff! Andrea started with us in January 2018 as a Development Associate. Prior to joining the Trust, her background includes product merchandising and planning for Plow & Hearth catalogs and online, and retail sales and customer service at a variety of places. She earned her degree in Fashion Merchandising & Retail Marketing from Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, NC in 2012.
A Shenandoah Valley, Virginia native, Andrea has called Charlottesville home for the last 4 ½ years. Outside of work, she enjoys playing tennis, hiking, spending time with friends and family, watching football & UVA basketball, traveling, and trying to keep up with her toddler niece and nephew!
Andrea is helping the Trust staff with event planning, communication and marketing initiatives, administrative tasks, and reporting/data analysis. You can reach her at as5gt@virginia.edu or 434-243-9026 for Trust questions.
CASE III Presentation on The Jefferson Trust
Executive Director of the Jefferson Trust, Wayne Cozart, presented an overview of The Jefferson Trust as a successful donor-directed philanthropy at the regional advancement conference CASE III in Atlanta, Georgia this month. Mr. Cozart discussed the success of the Trust as a means of actively involving alumni and parent donors in the ongoing life of the University of Virginia. He spoke about how an endowment like the Jefferson Trust, built on gifts by alumni, parents, and friends, can provide unrestricted dollar support to various areas of the University. He shared that the Trust not only provides opportunities for donors to support the University, but also for those donors to be active in choosing which new grants receive funding each year. This concept is new to higher education and creates an actively involved volunteer group who provide financial support to the University while becoming more personally involved in the active life of the institution. Several individuals attending the presentation expressed interest in starting a similar program at their institution.
Disability at the Intersection
UVA’s Disability Studies Initiative is holding its third biennial symposium this Friday, February 23. The symposium, funded in part by a grant from the Jefferson Trust, is free and open to the public. Take a look at the event schedule here.
In Memoriam: Jefferson Trust Trustee Ed McCrady (1963–2018)
Last month the UVA community lost Ed McCrady, a terrific father, husband, and supporter of the University. Ed graduated from UVA’s McIntire School in 1985, where he was an accomplished student and Lawn Resident. Ed set off on a decorated career and eventually became CEO of Atlanta Storage Partners, a position he held for the last fifteen years. He always looked for ways to give back to the communities that were important to him, serving on the boards of the Lovett School and the Foundation Board of the McIntire School of Commerce. His understanding of the importance of philanthropy, and the potential impact it can have in higher education, drove him to join the Jefferson Trust. An integral part of our grant conversations, Ed was a true advocate for entrepreneurial education; his voice was critical in shaping the Trust to be a major supporter of innovative programs related to entrepreneurship. We are reminded of Ed’s love for his family, his commitment to bettering his communities, and his positive attitude while working and serving others.
His full obituary can be read here.
Global Leadership Forum
In November 2017, 30 emerging leaders from 27 countries, students and faculty from the University of Virginia, and other scholars and experts gathered on grounds to participate in The Presidential Precinct’s Global Leadership Forum: Promoting Gender Equality in Education. Events included round-table and panel discussions, breakout workshops, small group conversations, and site visits to Charlottesville community organizations, with project-based learning components. The Jefferson Trust was very pleased to support this initiative!
The week began with the University of Virginia’s Women’s Global Leadership Forum, a part of the Bicentennial celebration. Spearheaded by the UVA Morven Programs, the forum brought together women of all backgrounds to address the “Role of Women in the 21st Century Democracy.” Participants explored the challenges and contributions women have made in today’s complex society through conversations on 21st century democracy: race, religion, and gender, leadership and gender equality, political power, mobilizing millennials, and health and education challenges for women and girls. The culmination of the event was the closing address by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, where she discussed the path forward for women in 21st century democracy.
The forum continued with the Presidential Precinct’s Global Leadership Forum, which focused on developing innovative ideas and effective solutions being implemented to ensure that women and girls around the world have equal access to quality educational opportunities setting them up for lifelong success. Highlights included small group site visits to Charlottesville’s most progressive and concentrated programs focused on education, and Design-Thinking sessions where participants learned practical solutions to complex problems, based on an understanding of target group needs. Lastly, a key application involved a full-day design challenge – in small groups participants used design-thinking methodology to tackle real-world problems in one of the participant’s home countries, which resulted in six new approaches to various challenges in gender equality in education.
Organizers of the week consider their weeklong symposium a successful event. Attendees were able to strengthen individual skills and perspectives to address gender equality in education, create professional ties among participants, and UVA students who worked on the program gained a valuable professional development opportunity. From one global emerging leader, “In addition to the various interactive and informational sessions delivered during GLF, I appreciated connecting with many leaders from all around the globe acting as agents of change with regard to women and gender issues in their respective communities. What’s more striking was for me to see to what extent projects other peers have been able to successfully implement which I long have thought impossible at home. Now more than any time before, I am armed with the confidence and inspiration it takes in order to drive the same initiatives in my own country as well. I feel so empowered to be part of this large network of young leaders.” Funding from the Jefferson Trust supported partial program costs, helping in the symposium’s success.
The Digital 1828 Catalogue Collection
One of Mr. Jefferson’s theories was that an easily accessible library should be one of the cornerstones of a democratic society, allowing citizens and scholars to conveniently access knowledge. The UVA Law Library is making that theory a reality. This past fall, the Law School’s Digital Collections Librarian, Loren Moulds, and Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities, James Ambuske, sought almost $30,000 in funding from the Jefferson Trust to complete a forty year goal of the UVA Law Library, digitizing 375 rare legal texts that were originally selected by Thomas Jefferson for the first UVA Library. The Digital 1828 Catalogue Collection Project will allow greater access to this esteemed collection by providing a virtual bookshelf for these texts. Throughout the summer, this student-centered project provided an opportunity for students to gain research experience in digital humanities, learn the history of early American law and legal education, and master the process of digitizing rare books.
To date, project directors and student interns have digitized more than 1/3 of the books and the entire collection will be digitized by the end of 2017. They are also in the final stages of developing the virtual web experience. Under the direction of Institute for Public History intern, Melissa Gismondi, student researchers also compiled and organized data about the collection, noting concepts and volumes worthy of further investigation in the future. Gismondi’s contributions were remarkably productive. She wrote several interpretive essays historicizing the University’s use of the books, including Jefferson’s view on the proper methods of using the books to educate students in reading the Law. She also contextualized the books’ intellectual place in the early republic.
The project directors are planning a conference in 2018, centered on Jefferson’s catalog for the University’s first library. The fully realized digital, virtual library project is planned for early 2018.
Trustee Spotlight: Grace Hobby Grundy
All Jefferson Trust trustees are generous community leaders, but Grace Hobby Grundy (SEAS ’12) may have the most interesting volunteer affiliation of all—she’s a member of the Mutton Bustin’ Committee. Grace serves on the Houston Rodeo’s Mutton Bustin’ Committee, which prepares 5 year olds to suit up for the ultimate Texan adrenaline rush—sheep riding! She is not only true to her native Texas, she is also true to the University. As a fourth year, she served as a class trustee and just completed her fifth year of service as a post-grad class trustee. As an active member of the Jefferson Trust since 2012, Grace has served on the Grants Committee and led the committee as Chair this past year.
Grace is connected to the University through her classmates, whom she describes as incredible change makers; she also shares family connections, as the daughter, sister, wife, cousin, niece and sister-in-law to fellow Hoos. She says that as a trustee her connections to the University have expanded. Now she is more than a member of the SEAS class of 2012 and more than a member of a family of alums. “Working as a trustee with other UVA alums and parents has brought me into every class and school within UVA. As a trustee, I am called back to the University repeatedly to hear from deans, professors and students. I see the power and drive within the University that I didn’t fully grasp as an undergrad.”
One of the highlights of being a trustee is that “The Trust has a front row view to what is happening at the University. We see applicants with projects in early stages that often have not yet been made public to the University community. As a trustee, I have a voice in my financial influence at the University.” She notes, “The Trust allows trustees to stay connected to their donations, their schools and with fellow trustees.” From Grace Hobby Grundy’s front row seat, she states that at the University of Virginia “Times are good and the future is bright!”
The Trust Welcomes New Alumni Association President & CEO, Jenifer Andrasko
UVA Today spotlighted the new President of the Alumni Association, Jenifer Andrasko. You can read the article here.
Jefferson Trust Grant Information Session and Deadline
Since 2006, the Jefferson Trust has awarded 160 grants totaling $6,309,119 to all areas of the University community. Founded by the Alumni Association of the University of Virginia, the Trust promotes excellence by providing catalytic support to the University community for initiatives in pursuit of Jeffersonian ideals. As an agile, unrestricted resource for the University of Virginia community, the Trust supports new projects advocated by students, faculty and organizations. Please note that the Trust does not provide budget relief for existing programs.
The Jefferson Trust will hold a grants application information session in the Manning Pavilion at Alumni Hall on Wednesday, September 6 from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. For more information about the Trust and the application process, please check out the Application page on our website or contact us At 434-243-9026. For resources to navigate the application process, take a look at our Resources page.