Anne & Gene Worrell Foundation Makes Investment in UVA Wise Student Scholarships and Regional Leadership Initiatives
The University of Virginia’s College at Wise (UVA Wise) is excited to announce that the Anne & Gene Worrell Foundation has made a $1 million commitment to the College to support student scholarships and regional leadership initiatives.
The gift will be matched with a $500,000 investment from the University of Virginia’s Bicentennial Funds, bringing its total impact to $1.5 million. The Anne & Gene Worrell Bicentennial Scholars fund has been created by the investment to fund scholarships for students at the College with preference for those transferring from the community college system. The gift also provides a leadership endowment to support the College’s LEAD Southwest Virginia program, which is open to leaders across the region and kicks off in May. In addition, the gift will support community and economic development initiatives, including entrepreneur start-up programs and the Clinch River Ecological Education Center Outdoor Classroom.
“Thanks to the Anne & Gene Worrell Foundation’s generosity, UVA Wise is taking another step forward in delivering on our commitment to making a higher education possible for all worthy and deserving students,” says UVA Wise Chancellor Donna P. Henry. “We are proud to honor Mr. and Mrs. Worrell for their leadership among the communities in which they lived and served, and especially the far Southwest Virginia region. Their legacy has already made an immense difference and the investments their foundation continues to make in communities across Virginia will change the trajectory of the lives of those who benefit.”
Born and raised in Bristol, Virginia, Gene Worrell met Anne when they both worked at a summer camp affiliated with Virginia Intermont College, where Anne attended. Gene later launched the successful newspaper, The Virginia-Tennessean, in Bristol in 1949. In 1986, Anne and Gene created the Genan Foundation—recently renamed the Anne & Gene Worrell Foundation—to carry on their lifelong commitment to philanthropy.
UVA Wise is one of the institutional anchors that drives the economic well-being of far Southwest Virginia. On behalf of the Anne & Gene Worrell Foundation Board, we are proud to invest in growing the leaders of tomorrow and preserving Southwest Virginia’s glorious natural assets,” says Holly Hatcher, President and CEO of the Foundation.
The Anne & Gene Worrell Foundation works to cultivate resilient communities and ecosystems, and the gift to UVA Wise is no exception. In addition to an endowed leadership fund, the gift also provides funds for entrepreneurial leadership and environmental education.