An anonymous, former scholar from UNC's Morehead-Cain Foundation pledged $10 million to ensure the future growth of the University scholarship program.
The donor of the funds is challenging other donors to match their pledge amount in order to contribute a total of $20 million toward the Give Together Scholarship Challenge. If the pledge is met, the challenge will be considered the largest donation made by alumni of the scholarship program.
Chuck Lovelace, an alumnus of the Morehead-Cain scholarship program, serves as the current executive director of the foundation.
"The wonderful thing about the gift is that it is from an alumnus who believes very strongly in not only the impact this program had on them but also the fact that they feel the program is in a really good spot to be able to provide this opportunity to many more students,” Lovelace said.
The donor would like to contribute to the same invaluable academic opportunities for future Morehead students that the donor experienced as a student, Lovelace said.
“Well the idea was since its inception back in 1951," Lovelace said. "Essentially, the Morehead-Cain has operated with the dual purpose of retaining the best students in North Carolina for UNC and also attracting students from out of state and internationally that wouldn’t consider coming to Carolina unless they had heard of it through the Morehead-Cain."
This past year, the Morehead-Cain Foundation was able to increase the scholar class to 75 students. However, the program can only preserve this number of students by completing its campaign of $75 million, which the $10 million pledge is going toward.
“We are not changing the nature of the scholarship," Lovelace said. "We will simply be in a position to offer more students.”
Zianne Richardson is a first-year student and Morehead-Cain scholarship recipient from Warren County.
