News

Celebrating student excellence each year, West Chester University’s Presidential Scholarship Community Gala draws more than 400 friends from the Commonwealth to an annual benefit designed to fund Presidential Scholarships for WCU students who have earned academic distinction. Like many events in the nation this year, however, the spring 2020 scholarship gala was cancelled due to a global pandemic that has prompted the necessity to practice social distancing and limit public gatherings. Upon hearing the financial challenges that students and their families continue to experience due to the COVID-19 outbreak, numerous sponsors of the gala have made the decision to redirect their gifts to a Student Emergency Aid Fund that has been explicitly established to help students who have been impacted directly by the global health crisis. To date, $114,023 has been given by generous community partners and individuals to the essential-need Fund launched by the WCU Foundation.

“Scholarship assistance, housing, food, basic goods, and services—countless avenues of support for our students are required at this critical time,” wrote WCU Foundation CEO Christopher Mominey in a letter to alumni and other friends of the University.  “The WCU Foundation, in collaboration with our dedicated corporate partners, has established the Student Emergency Aid Fund to assist WCU students who are experiencing hardships and finding themselves with financial and emotional struggles that they never saw coming.”

The Student Emergency Aid Fund will assist WCU students who are facing technology gaps that were previously filled through existing on-campus resources; confronting unanticipated expenses due to reduced work hours; experiencing financial aid and tuition payment difficulties; and who are working through the new challenge of completing the semester remotely.

West Chester University students who are experiencing difficulty due to the COVID-19 pandemic are urged to apply for assistance through the following link: Student Emergency Aid Appeal. Members of the community who wish to help these West Chester University students are invited to visit http://go.wcufoundation.org/student-aid to learn more.

As a University practice, it remains important to intentionally uncover and then remove barriers that impede student success. In addition to the Student Emergency Aid Fund, annual Presidential Scholarships are awarded to students who merit academic distinction. Since its inception in 1983, the Gala has raised more than $1.2 million in scholarship dollars for such West Chester University students. Funded entirely by private donations, the Presidential Scholarship is a renewable, four-year award.

Amidst a global pandemic that has adversely affected students’ lives in significant ways, the following are among those generous corporate partners and individuals in the community who are actively making a difference in WCU students’ lives by way of the Student Emergency Aid Fund and/or Presidential Scholarships:

GALA SPONSORS: Aramark; Arthur Hall Insurance; Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP; BB&T (Now Trust); CALECO Laundry; Citadel; Dilworth Paxson, LLP; First Bank; H.B. Frazer Company; Hobbs and Company, Inc.; Jobsite Products, Inc.; Krapf Bus Companies; Lamb McErlane PC; Lobar, Inc.; MacElree Harvey; Meridian Bank; Monarch Staffing; NJM Insurance Group; Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP; Philadelphia Phillies; Radius Systems, LLC; SEI Investments Company; Sodexo; Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young LLP; TD Bank; The Party Center; University Student Housing, LLC; Visual Sound; Warren Financial; Wilmington Trust; WCU Alumni Association; and West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.

EVENT SPONSORS: Citadel; M&T Charitable Foundation; Meridian Bank; PSECU; TD Bank; and Univest.