As soon as the trick-or-treaters leave the last candy wrapper on the doorstep, Thanksgiving, the holiday shopping season, New Year’s Eve and the College Football playoffs await us. In addition, we will all be asked for tax-deductible donations as the fiscal year comes to a close. There are a host of wonderful opportunities for your year-end giving; many of these opportunities are just as important as the phonograph. (“The gift that keeps on giving” was first trademarked as a slogan for the phonograph.)

As an institution that values community engagement and civic responsibility, the UNCW family certainly wants you to give to the charities that are most dear to you. We also offer a potential charitable giving option: scholarship donations. These donations are used to further the educational attainments of deserving students based on initial donor criteria and ongoing success and service.

Scholarships come in all forms, sizes and shapes and are not limited to providing for tuition and books. Indeed, scholarships can provide existing students with unique applied learning opportunities that foster the skills, knowledge and practice to think critically and act responsibly in meeting global challenges. These opportunities include international internship travel funds, scientific and technological equipment purchases, musical and theatrical necessities, and more. As such, scholarship donations are an investment in a highly trained workforce that generates economic opportunities for our community.

Students (and hard-working parents and family members) find scholarships much more appealing versus the typical interest-accruing student loan. Scholarship recipients can enter the workforce without the additional burden of loan payments; thus, wealth creation can begin upon graduation.

Each year, UNCW hosts an annual scholarship dinner where donors have the opportunity to sit and meet with the recipients of their scholarships. Donors get to meet the students they have “adopted” for the length of the scholarship. The students get to express their appreciation that someone cared enough to help them succeed and gave them a shot at their dreams. The following quotes from our own Cameron School of Business scholarship recipients summarize the theme of this wonderful event:  

 “In whatever direction I decide to head, I will be able to pursue happiness and thank those whom have helped me on the way.”

“Thank you for my Business 2 Business Scholarship. This honor has motivated me in my studies, and I can’t begin to thank you enough.”

“I want to take a second to thank you tremendously for your being so generous and providing me with a scholarship. It truly makes my life much easier, considering I am financing college by myself and that is a rather difficult task while being a full-time student.”

There are many ways for you to consider giving to Cameron’s tax deductible scholarship program. Some of these include: providing additional support for an existing scholarship; establishing a named scholarship (annual gift of at least $1,000 or endowment of at least $25,000 – payable over time); providing support for Cameron students who want to study abroad; or supporting a program within the School. Please contact me at [email protected] or (910) 962-3777 to find out how we can put your name on Cameron Hall’s donor board. If not the Cameron School of Business, we will be very happy to direct your communications to another UNCW entity that is dear to your heart and has student need.

For 2014-2015, Dr. Robert T. Burrus, Jr. will serve as interim Dean of the Cameron School of Business at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Before taking on the role of interim Dean, Burrus was the department chair for economics and finance and a professor of economics. He has been on Cameron’s faculty since 1998. The Cameron School of Business has 90 full-time faculty members and 29 administrative and staff members. The school hosts approximately 2,000 undergraduate students and 170 graduate students. International students come to study at Cameron from all over the world. The Cameron School of Business is AACSB accredited; offers capstone experiences; houses a Financial Trading Markets Room; provides for overseas learning opportunities; and is a founding member of the Trans-Atlantic Business School Alliance. To learn more about the Cameron School of Business, please visit http://csb.uncw.edu/. Questions and comments can be sent to [email protected].