Impact Stories - The Arts and Sciences Foundation

Explore the stories of how alumni and friends help fuel the progress of scientists, humanists, artists, entrepreneurs and technologists at the College of Arts and Sciences every day.

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The Monk family’s gift will support students serving in internships in eastern North Carolina and students from that region participating in internships elsewhere. Multiple generations of the family are represented in this photo. (photo courtesy of the Monk family)

Connecting the University and Eastern North Carolina

The Monk family’s love of home and university led them to give back to Carolina and their home region of eastern North Carolina through the Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship’s Monk Family Internship Fund.

Video: Groundbreaking Discovery

The Lori and Eric Sklut Undergraduate Experiential Learning Fund provides eager students with opportunities to venture outside of the classroom through study abroad and faculty-mentored research.

Preparing the Future Scientists of Tomorrow

“A lot of students of color and minorities in STEM can slip through the cracks,” Paloma Ruiz ’22 said. “More than anything, I think the Chancellor’s Science Scholars shows students like me that we belong in science, and we deserve to be here.”

(From left to right) Rita Hanes ’89, Jim Tanner ’90 and Pam Parker ’90, all Arts and Sciences Foundation Board of Directors and Arts and Sciences Fund donors, celebrate the College’s success in the Campaign for Carolina.

The Power of Unrestricted Support

Pam Parker ’90, a current member of the Arts and Sciences Foundation Board of Directors, appreciates the value of unrestricted giving and especially its role in flexibly meeting the needs of talented students and acclaimed faculty.

A student in the Triple-I course, “Health and Happiness,” piloted in spring 2019. Each Triple-I course brings together three outstanding professors from different departments across the university so that students can study a common theme from several perspectives. Triple-I is part of the First Year Foundations requirement of the new IDEAs in Action curriculum. (photo by Donn Young)

Supporting the New Undergraduate General Education Curriculum

Thanks to a recent gift from donors Justin ’94 and Emily Haynie ’96, whose son is a current Tar Heel, the College is able to implement this more structured first-year experience.

Graduate students perform research on local living shorelines through the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences. (photo by Mary Lide Parker)

The Cross-Pollination of Science at Carolina

Margaret and Tillman Cooley, B.S. ’65 (Ph.D. ’70) support the department of earth, marine, and environmental sciences at Carolina. “Synergy is so important, and it works – I know,” said Tillman Cooley. “I’m so excited to see how our UNC scientists cross-pollinate and flourish.”

Surveyor and Storyteller

Anna Atencio was a member of the first Chancellor’s Science Scholars cohort. Now she helps tell the unseen story below the seafloor as a geophysicist on the coast of North Carolina.

“I took two classes in San Cristóbal, one on immigration to the United States from Latin America and one on Latin American literature. We traveled to various beaches on the island, several giant tortoise reservations and to Santa Cruz, another island in the archipelago. I told my friends and family that there were so many ‘best parts’ of the trip — the food, the friends I made, the immigration course, the amazing views and weather, my super sweet host family, the friendly citizens of Puerto Baquerizo — I could go on. “The experience opened my eyes to a completely different way of life, while simultaneously making me appreciate the culture and living conditions of the United States. The course on immigration taught me a lot about the violent and desperate conditions that cause Latin Americans to immigrate to the United States. Additionally, it showed me how complex the process of legal immigration is and the various ways in which Latino immigrants are exploited in the United States. Still, despite all these barriers and threats, many choose to immigrate. Learning this from a perspective outside of the U.S. really brought home this idea to me because I was separated from many things that I take for granted in the U.S. I did not expect that through study abroad, I would gain an appreciation for my home country.” - Trevor Pharr ’23, a music and chemistry double major

A Plan and a Partnership

John and Marree Townsend’s commitments to UNC-Chapel Hill over the years have been both plentiful and purposeful — and none more so than their gift to the College of Arts and Sciences to establish the Townsend Family Strategic Initiatives Fund.

Pillar of Chapel Hill Community Leaves Gift to College’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts

Robert E. Seymour Jr. was a champion of social justice who led a congregation that challenged racial segregation and advocated on behalf of the aged and poor. Seymour died in 2020 at age 95, leaving a gift in his estate to the College of Arts and Sciences.

French Fellow Frances Duffy Ph.D. ’20, who earned her doctorate in public policy, received graduate support that enabled her to focus on her dissertation research and teaching. Duffy is currently a senior national security analyst at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.