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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...

Athletics

Time and Treasure Highlight ‘I Love WCU’

Western Carolina University faculty and staff opened their hearts as well as their wallets and calendars this year to support the university’s fourth annual “I Love WCU” campaign during the month of February. This year’s campaign, which was a joint effort from the Division of Advancement and the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning, encouraged participants to volunteer their time to community service projects, as well as to make charitable donations.  

Facilities Management

Family Comes First for New Facilities Management Scholarship, an “I Love WCU” Story

Western Carolina University’s Facilities Management unit is a family, as far as members of its leadership team are concerned, so they decided to help take care of their own by establishing the WCU Facilities Management Annual Scholarship in honor of “I Love WCU” month.  

Jennifer Hinton

Recreational Therapy Director says Helping Others Helps Her; an “I Love WCU” Story

It’s hard to tell where Jennifer Hinton’s real job ends and her volunteer work begins. As program director and clinical education coordinator for Western Carolina University’s recreational therapy program, Hinton spends much of her time teaching her students about service-learning, coordinating volunteer projects for them or doing community service herself — sometimes for work, her church, her family — or often a combination of some of them, if not all.   

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.  

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