Thank you for helping so many JMU students

Dear Unleashed Donor,

We’re reaching out to say thank you—thank you for being part of the Unleashed campaign and for changing lives in the process. Because of your $236 million in total campaign giving so far, you are affecting the personal stories of so many JMU students. Your caring and thoughtfulness mean a lot right now to our community.

If you missed Valley Scholars graduates Oscar Moreno-Tenorio ('23) and Ayam Ali ('23) at the January Unleashed webinar, we urge you to watch the recording. They shared their personal journeys and the incredible achievements as JMU students made possible by your scholarship support. Thank you, Dave (’91) and Marcy (’91) Kozlowski, for your support, for hosting the webinar and for urging others to invest in scholarships for this pipeline of 208 first-generation college hopefuls.

More than 1,000 of you made the Warden Scholarship Match an unqualified success, pushing past the goals Kathy (’92) and Eric (’93) Warden set with their challenge gift. With giving surpassing $3.1 million, you have bridged the opportunity gap for 125 financially disadvantaged students. These aspiring Dukes are beginning to make their decisions to attend now. The great news is that they will be able to stay at JMU all four years.

We trust you heard the important news about JMU’s renowned Furious Flower Poetry Center, which has been inspiring and amplifying voices from around the world for more than a quarter century. The university has received a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to preserve the digital future of Furious Flower, the nation’s first academic center devoted to Black poetry. It is JMU’s largest-ever grant from a private foundation and affirms the groundbreaking scholarship and leadership of Executive Director Joanne Gabbin and Assistant Director Lauren Alleyne.

We hope you will mark your calendar for two big days coming up soon for JMU.

• Giving Day is 2.22.22, the day all Dukes come 2gether for 24 hours of giving to support JMU. In honor of that day, we hope you will become an Ambassador and invite at least 2 friends to make a gift in honor of all those 2s in the date. Giving Day is an opportunity to support student-focused programs like the JMU Counseling and Student Development Center and Division of Student Affairs initiatives.

• You can enjoy another full day of exciting Madison Trust ideas on March 11, when philanthropic investors step forward to consider this year’s top faculty and staff innovations. The event will be held both online and in-person.

In closing, allow us to thank you once again for your philanthropic support. We share your passion for JMU and appreciate you for helping to create such a caring community at JMU and for enhancing the opportunities available to JMU students.

With warm regards,

Vanessa M. Evans-Grevious (’93, ’97M)