Category: What’s New @ UMW

On August 29, 2012, the University received a $38,000 gift to add to an existing scholarship for UMW students with exceptional academic ability. The new scholarship funds are from the daughter of Dorothy Chiles Hodnette ’26.

The late Mrs. Hodnette originally established the Chiles Scholarship in 1992 to honor her three sisters: Avie Bell Chiles Smith ’19, Lula Garland Chiles Clarke ’31, and Mary Chiles Henderson ’27. All four Chiles sisters expressed a great love for Mary Washington – and this gift perpetuates their family legacy by helping students pursue their educational dreams at UMW.

This gift update is from the Division of Advancement and University Relations.

The UMW community was saddened this summer with the passing of Cheryl Hawkinson-Melkun.  Cheryl was a valued colleague and friend.  In order to honor her memory, College of Business colleagues are planning to purchase a bench to be placed at the Stafford campus where Cheryl founded the Writing Center and served as professor for her last years.  If you would like to support the COB’s efforts, you can make a gift as follows:

Gifts can be received via checks, online or by payroll deduction for UMW employees.  Checks should be made out to “UMW Foundation” and can be mailed to the UMW Advancement Office (1119 Hanover St).  Most importantly, donors need to be sure to write on their check’s memo line “for Cheryl Hawkinson-Melkun bench” (the same goes for the designation field on the online gift form). If donors forget to do this, the gift will go to the general Fund for Mary Washington.

For more information, contact Lynne Richardson at (540) 654-1455.

Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont will host the exhibition “Glimpses of Holland from the Portfolios of Gari Melchers” from Saturday, September 1 through Sunday, November 18.

Artist Gari Melchers visited the Netherlands frequently during his career and used the country as an inspiration for many of his works. The exhibition will feature 50 first impressions drawn from Melchers’ portfolios and collection of preliminary oil sketches and studies.

For more information about the exhibit or other fall events, read the full news release.

The University of Mary Washington has been rated 12th among master’s universities in the nation by the Washington Monthly magazine.

In its annual “College Guide and Rankings,” the publication ranks schools based on their contribution to the public good. The criteria includes social mobility that encompasses recruiting and graduating low-income students; research that produces cutting-edge scholarships and Ph.D.s; and service that encourages students to give back to their country.

For the full news release, please visit http://www.umw.edu/news/2012/08/27/washington-monthly-ranks-umw-among-top-masters-universities/.

The Virginia Festival of the Book, a program of the Center for the Book at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, seeks applications for the 2013 Virginia Festival of the Book, which will be held in Charlottesville from Wednesday, March 20 through Sunday, March 24.

Professors or staff members who have written books in the last one to two years are eligible to apply. The program is interested in fiction, poetry, biography, memoirs, current affairs, history, Virginia stories, mysteries, science, science fiction, cooking or sports, with an emphasis on books that would appeal to the general reading audience.

If you would like to apply or need more information, contact Marty Morrison or Brynn Boyer in the Office of News and Public Information by Friday, August 31.