This university recently received its first-ever endowed scholarship in the amount of $30,000 from an anonymous donor.
The scholarship is called the Gardner H. Russell Leadership Endowed Scholarship Fund and will be used primarily for the new MBA program.
Russell is 90 years old now and retired in Florida. During his career, he would find failing companies with the intent of making them profitable and then selling them. He was also an international business consultant.
He was able to help fund Southern Virginia University and entrepreneurial studies at BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii. Russell also helped fund programs to educate people in Central America that would otherwise have no educational opportunities.
According to a press release, the scholarship donor was inspired by Russell while serving as a missionary for the LDS church in the Uruguay, Paraguay Mission. Russell was serving as the mission president.
As years went by, the donor became successful enough to follow in the footsteps of his role model, thus donating $30,000 to this school.
The money will become available in 2012, once the fund is protected against inflation. It will gain interest through investments led by the UVU Foundation.
Disbursements will go to students already accepted into the MBA program. The criteria for being awarded money from the fund will be merit based, with varied academic qualifications, according to Dr. Taggart Frost, director of the MBA program.
