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Impact Stories

Our alumni, community, faculty, staff, and partners are dedicated to supporting the success of current and future Catamounts. Western Carolina University is committed to sustaining and improving individual lives through education and by enhancing the economic and community development of our region. Discover the philanthropy and the people who make this happen...

Anne Aldrich

A Passion for Literacy Leads to Cross-Cultural Service, an “I Love WCU” Story

Once a week for nearly three years, Anne Aldrich has left her home in Balsam and driven 35 minutes to western Buncombe County to scratch an itch she has for literacy. An avid reader since the age of 4, Aldrich is committed to helping others understand the meaning of words, even if English isn’t their first language.  

Amber Parker

WCU Dance Team Coaches Create Scholarship in Memory of Former Member

Funny, funny, funny. That was Amber Parker in a nutshell, say those who best knew the vibrant young woman who graduated from Western Carolina University in 2016 and passed away Nov. 18, 2018, at age 24 from a rare form of ovarian cancer.  

giving tuesday

Catamount Nation Answers the Call on Giving Tuesday

For the fourth time in as many years, Western Carolina Athletics and its fundraising arm, the Catamount Club, put out the call as part of the National Day of Giving, #GivingTuesday. And once again, the generosity of the Catamount Nation brightly shined through. Through fundraising efforts stemming around the Dec. 3 Giving Tuesday initiative, a total of 254 generous supporters ranging from the West Coast to the Southeast – and points in between – answered the Giving Tuesday challenge by raising a record-setting total...  

Kevin Rumley

Graduating Veteran Finds Peace After ‘Journey of a Million Steps’

Graduated, enlisted, blown up, hospitalized, released, addicted, homeless, hopeless, rescued, enrolled, graduated, employed, enrolled, graduated, honored, redeemed. Read between those lines a minute, and listen. This is WCU Alumni Kevin Rumley's story...  

Tuyen Tram

Accomplished First-Generation Student says Scholarships Changed her Life

She was first influenced as a child by television pictures of 15th-century temples in China's Forbidden City and elaborate, ornate churches in Europe, beautifully designed structures, all of which left an indelible mark on a little Chinese girl growing up in Vietnam.  

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Scholarships Created from Lead the Way

Thanks to your generous support we were able to create over 200 scholarships during our Lead the Way Campaign. Explore the scholarships here...  

Dwight Ryland

Colorado couple endows scholarship in effort to save environment through education

Dwight Ryland has seen some glorious views in his day, having climbed all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains — some of them more than once—and skied his native state’s majestic slopes. But a dark cloud on the horizon has redirected his gaze and nudged the 77-year-old Ryland to put his money where his heart is: saving the environment through education.  

Lead the Way Reveal

‘Lead the Way’ fundraising campaign total surpasses $60 million goal

David Belcher would be proud. Thanks to more than 12,000 donors — nearly half of those first-time donors — the Western Carolina University family helped the beloved late chancellor meet his pledge of raising millions of dollars in scholarship support to help WCU students pay for their education.   

Lead the Way

‘Lead the Way’ total to be announced May 2 with campus celebration

It’s been more than a year in the making, this fundraising challenge to reach $60 million for the Lead the Way campaign in support of late Chancellor David Belcher’s pledge for more student scholarships. Did we make it? Find out May 2 during the ‘big reveal’ at a community celebration in the Ramsey Center.  

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