Invest in Education

Directors are the leaders responsible for maintaining and enhancing the quality of the programs they oversee. An endowed directorship provides discretionary funds to help a director realize his or her vision. Universities with endowed directorships have a significant advantage in recruiting or retaining the best possible directors.

Endowed faculty chair positions are a hallmark of academic quality and a means by which a university honors its most esteemed scholars and teachers – faculty members of national and international distinction. Chair positions help make it possible to recruit or retain scholars with exceptional, sustained records of achievement.

Endowed professorships recognize and reward exceptional faculty members. Because they are so highly prized within the educational industry, endowed professorships are a powerful tool for recruitment and retention.

This support fuels special projects within colleges or departments. Purchasing equipment, hiring research assistants, or traveling for research are examples of the types of initiatives this type of endowment helps to fund.

Advancing knowledge through research is a primary responsibility for a university. Senior faculty fellowships advance the work of tenured professors who are conducting significant investigations or working on books or major research papers.

Junior faculty fellowships support the research and teaching of untenured assistant or associate professors whose work shows remarkable potential. They encourage innovation in teaching and research, and help the university retain its most promising junior faculty members.

Scholarships sometimes make the difference in whether talented students can attend Virginia Tech. They also allow recipients to focus more exclusively on their schoolwork and to pursue extracurricular opportunities that lead to learning and personal growth. As a recruiting tool, scholarships help the university to attract outstanding individuals to campus.