Campus Talk: Tulsa Mabee Foundation gifts Hendrix College with $1 million challenge grant

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TULSA MABEE FOUNDATION GIFTS HENDRIX COLLEGE WITH $1 MILLION CHALLENGE GRANT: Hendrix College has received a $1 million challenge grant from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The grant will support the construction of the Mary Ann and David Dawkins Welcome Center at the northeast entrance to campus. Earlier this fall, Hendrix received a $26 million gift from Mary Ann Dawkins’ estate to support scholarships, promote college affordability and launch the College’s fundraising effort for the new welcome center.

Hendrix has now raised $4 million in gifts and pledges toward the new center’s $7 million total cost. The Mabee Foundation will award $1 million to complete the project if Hendrix raises an additional $2 million in new gifts and pledges by September 2016.

INDEPENDENT DELTA SCHOOL TO HOLD GRAND OPENING IN WILSON: The nonprofit Delta School will hold a ribbon-cutting and open house event on Wednesday for a new K-12 maker’s school in Wilson, Arkansas that officials say will serve as “an educational option in Mississippi County as well as a national model of educational excellence.”

The independent school is being set up as a maker’s school, which provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build and invent as they deeply engage in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – related projects. Harvard-educated Jenifer Fox will be installed as the new head of the Arkansas school, which is expecting a founding class of 30 to 40 students. Visit www.thedeltaschool.org for more information.

UCA RECEIVES $250,000 GIFT FROM ESTATE OF DONNA STEPHENS: The University of Central Arkansas received a $250,000 gift from the late Donna S. Stephens to establish an endowed scholarship fund for Faulkner County students. Spencer Freyaldenhoven and Kevin Wan were recently named the first two recipients of the scholarship. Stephens, a CPA who owned a Conway accounting firm, was a 1968 graduate of State College of Arkansas, now UCA. She passed away in January 2013, and her estate left the endowment to UCA to fund the accounting scholarships.

MARIANNA STUDENT AWARDED $5,000 SCHOLARSHIP FROM NATIONAL BLACK FARMERS’ SCHOLARSHIP FUND: Demetrius Arnold of Marianna was among 19 students recently awarded more than $87,000 in scholarship funds by the National Black Farmers Association (NBFA). Arnold, who received $5,000, is a farming technology major at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Established in May 2015 to support the next generation of African American farmers, the NBFA provides scholarships to college students who are pursuing agriculture-related studies. The FCA Foundation, the charitable arm of the NBFA, also announced it would fund up to $100,000 for a second year of the scholarship program.

UALR APPOINTS NEW EMPLOYEE RELATIONS MANAGER: LaTonda Davis-Williams has accepted the position of employee relations manager and Title IX coordinator at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In her role, which became effective Oct. 1, Davis-Williams will coordinate the response to Title IX complaints, investigate and/or mediate employee complaints, and administer the leave of absence program for all employees in situations related to the Family and Medical Leave Act, catastrophic leave, worker’s compensation, and leave without pay. Davis-Williams has a Title IX certification, a BA in sociology from Henderson State University, and more than 15 years of experience processing employee complaints.