Faculty Legacy Scholarship

Vision

To establish faculty-endowed scholarships that one day will enable all qualified students to attend UNC Charlotte with all of their financial need met.

Brief History

At the beginning of the spring semester of 2012, Michael Green, then President of the Faculty Council, presented an idea for initiating an endowment-based scholarship, funded principally by small payroll-deducted gifts given over a faculty member’s entire career. The arguments in favor of such a fund included:

A college education is a transformative experience, perhaps the singular most important one in the lives of our youth.
Hard economic times impact students and families disproportionately when tuition increases faster than inflation.
Small gifts add up geometrically, and over many decades have the potential to become the largest endowed source of scholarships for UNC Charlotte.
The FLS initiative allows participating faculty to leave UNC Charlotte a better place than when we arrived.

Given these considerations and despite several years with no pay raise, the Faculty Council voted to establish an Ad Hoc committee to study the idea and make recommendations for its implementation. The Ad Hoc committee consisted of the President-elect of the Faculty Council, the individual college presidents, the four Bonnie Cone Distinguished Faculty, and three ex officio representatives from the Advancement Office, Financial Aid, and the Graduate School. Meeting weekly (an unprecedented schedule for university faculty), the Ad Hoc committee presented a set of recommendations to the Faculty Council at its March 22, 2012 meeting.

The recommendations included (1) establishing the Faculty Legacy Scholarship, (2) adopting a statement of vision and principles, and (3) setting up a new standing committee of the Faculty Council – The Faculty Legacy Scholarship Committee. This committee will oversee the finances, procedures, and scholarship distribution of the FLS. Initially, the committee will award scholarships to students on the basis of both merit and financial hardship. Ultimately, the vision will be fulfilled when the FLS endowment is sufficiently large to meet the individual financial needs of all students admitted to UNC Charlotte.

Early Years Scholarships

The FLS is a hybrid, endowed fund. During its early years, 30% of gifts received one year will be awarded as FLS scholarships in the following year. The remaining 70% of gifts will be directed at growing the endowment. Eventually, the endowment will become sufficiently large so that it will generate increasing numbers of additional scholarships every year.

Scholarship Recipients

Congratulations to all of our scholarship recipients!

2023-2024
- None; funds transferred to endowment account
2022-2023
- Jayna Butler, Health Systems Management
- April Godfrey, Social Work
- Bailey Justice, Spanish
- Grace Park, Elementary Education
2021-2022
- Razaan A. Abnowf, Pre-Economics
- Maggie A. Church, Dance
- Tracy L. Griffiths, Elementary Education
- Kristen E. Minehart, Public Health
- Rei Rama, Biology
2020-2021
- Christen Crumpler, Music
- Kaley Davis, Pre-Accounting
- Emma Dixon, Exercise Science
- Rebecca Grubb, Nursing
- Kira Marsh, Biology
- Margaret Whalen, Dance
2019 – 2020
- Serenity Anderson, Management
- Forest Atchison, Electrical Engineering
- Michael Barnhardt, Japanese
- Christopher Brooks, Civil Engineering
2018-2019
- None; funds transferred to endowment account
2017 – 2018
- Kamina Ham, Elementary Education
- Jim Lee, Civil Engineering
- Joshua Murray, Music
- Haely N. Pratt, Computer Science
- Joshua S. Reynolds, Mathematics
2016 – 2017
- John Bowles, Social Work
- Rosemarie Campone, Marketing
- Makayla Church, Dance
- Tracy Easter, Mechanical Engineering
- Kamina Ham, Elementary Education
2015 – 2016
- Richard Bennett, Computer Science
- Tyler Goehring, Music Education
- Kevin Johnson, Criminal Justice
- Ashley Kernodle, Management
2014 – 2015
- Jason Cleary, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Judith Davis, Accounting
- Stephanie Galo, Public Health
- Theresa McCarty, Elementary Education
2013 – 2014
- Kate Moore, History
- Anatoly Repinetsky, Software & Information Systems