This Endowment Fund Wall honors scholarship donors to Radford University’s College of Humanities
and Behavioral Sciences and was recently unveiled in a ceremony at Hemphill Hall.
RADFORD – Friends and supporters of Radford University and the College of Humanities and
Behavioral Sciences (CHBS) recently gathered at Hemphill Hall for the unveiling and dedication of the
Endowment Fund Wall.
Located just inside the building’s campus-side entrance, the 9-by-7-foot display features a beehive design
with wood-graved plaques noting CHBS scholarships and their donors. The wall features 34 engraved
plaques that note CHBS scholarships. Additional plaques remain blank, awaiting the names of future
donors.
The fund wall serves three important purposes, said CHBS Dean Matthew J. Smith. First, it “offers a
visible and enduring thank-you to all those who have endowed student scholarships within the college,”
Smith said, moments before recognizing those in attendance who have contributed to endowed
scholarships.
It also serves as a reminder to students of the financial support opportunities available to them, and it
encourages future donors “to consider the value of a gift of this kind to our students,” Smith said.
Funding for the wall’s installation was made possible by financial support from members of the CHBS
Advisory Board. Alumnus and board chair James Egbert ’87 said the group wants to encourage and help
students grow, and we “want to give back what we got from our time at Radford.”
The wall’s location is along one of the highest traffic areas on campus, Smith said, where “thousands of
students egress daily traveling from the quad to our classrooms and back again.”
One of the scholarships represented on the wall is the MacKinnon Scholarship for the Advancement of
the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences at Radford University.
Senior Bailey Graham, a psychology and sociology double major from Roanoke spoke at the Friday
afternoon ceremony. She said the support she has received from the MacKinnon Scholarship has been
“invaluable” because it allows her to spend more time on academics, “which has allowed me to maintain
a 4.0 GPA.”
The fund wall artwork was designed by Foster Sheppard, a senior graphic design manager in the Office of
University Relations, and was inspired, Smith said, “by Radford’s traditional notion of the hive, where
industrious bees work together to build individual honeycombs into the communal hive.”
Among the scholarship plaques on the wall is an illustration of a bee alongside an inscription that reads
“Building the Hive since 1910.” Radford University was established that year as the State Normal and
Industrial School for Women at Radford.
Just before the red curtain was removed for the unveiling, Smith instructed those gathered to “turn the
corner and see what all the buzz is about.”
Chad Osborne
Radford University
