By Elin England, CHC Alumni & Parent Outreach Program Manager
For Megan Willhoite, putting herself through college is challenging. A sociology major and sports business minor, the Clark Honors College student has been paying tuition on her own, without support from her family.
"College is stressful," Willhoite said. "As a student it's hard enough to find ways to finance your education, even with financial aid and student loans."
But in late July, Willhoite received a bit of a reprieve from that stress. She and 30 other CHC students were notified that a generous gift from Mary (BA’76, JD’80) and Brett Wilcox had covered their differential tuition in full for the 2021/22 academic year. Mary Wilcox had previously served on the University of Oregon Board of Trustees as the chair of the Academic and Student Affairs Committee.
Willhoite was both surprised and delighted when she opened the announcement email.
"These gifts give students like me the chance to focus their time and energy on their education, not how they are going to pay for it," Willhoite said. "The CHC is an immersive experience and provides driven students the opportunity to engage with their equally driven peers across disciplines on unique topics. There are no other programs that allow this type of interdisciplinary engagement and removing a cost barrier to this experience makes it that much more enriching."
(Left to right); Recipients of the Wilcox gift Megan Willhoite; Ayuloowa Popoola; Aaron Casserly.
CHC junior Aaron Casserly was surprised when he received the email notification about the gift, since he hadn't applied for it or even knew that it existed—because it didn't. When the Wilcoxes made their gift, they did it unconditionally, allowing CHC to determine how to best use the funds. Acting Dean Carol Stabile immediately thought about the differential tuition cost, and the difference it would make if the gift was shared by a multitude of students.
“At a time when public funding for education remains low, differential tuition allows the CHC to provide small classroom experiences for our students, dedicated professional and faculty advising, and award-winning teaching,” Stabile said. “Gifts like that provided by the Wilcoxes can help us make the CHC experience affordable for students facing financial barriers.”
As he works toward a major in mathematics and two minors in physics and computer and information science, Casserly found the differential tuition offset a big relief. Having recently immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica, Casserly has experienced a unique set of challenges. The Wilcox gift has enabled him to focus on academic interests like quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and brain-computer interfaces.
"Offsetting tuition is important," Casserly said. "This gift has provided financial peace of mind that will help focusing on academic enrichment."
Another CHC recipient, Ayuloowa Popoola, says that it is difficult to provide for a family while attending school full time, but this support will help make it possible for him to continue pursuing his goal of becoming a physician's assistant. Hailing from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, he is majoring in human physiology and, as part of Damien Callahan's Muscle Cellular Biology Lab, Popoola investigates the impact of aging on muscle and tendon movement in older female adults. To support his wife and two children, Ayuloowa also works part-time as a caregiver.
“In the CHC, we are committed to making sure that donors’ gifts directly impact our students’ lives,” Stabile added. “From gifts like the Wilcox’s to gifts made by CHC alumni, families, and friends, donors help us offset tuition costs, provide summer funding for internships, support student research with faculty mentors, and create dynamic programs like our Visiting Fellow in Equity, Justice, and Inclusion.”
The unexpected donor support provided by Mary and Brett Wilcox has allowed 31 students to pursue opportunities that may well have remained out of reach, to have a measure of financial relief during a period of uncertainty, and to take the curiosity, passion, and intellectual prowess they acquire here in the Clark Honors College to go out into the world – our world – to make a difference. By making a difference in the lives of our students, donor support allows our students to pay that generosity forward.
If you are interested in making a gift to support the costs of differential tuition for CHC students with financial need, contact Alison Pitt, Director of Development for Scholarships and Student Success, at 541-517-6025 or aepitt@uoregon.edu. You may also give online here.