An endowed scholarship has been established for students pursuing the arts thanks to longtime supporter, former trustee and Women’s College alumna Dotty Eleazar Alexander.
The Alexander Family Scholarship will provide funding to Women’s College students studying the arts.
A first-generation college student, Alexander, WC ’60, came to Brenau from her hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, at the age of 14 on a spur of the moment trip with a high school friend and fell in love with The Women’s College. Three years later, she returned to Brenau as a freshman with a small music scholarship.
“In my young days and through my four years at Brenau, I became more and more convinced that Brenau was the most wonderful education a young woman could have,” Alexander said. “A sad and happy day for me was the day I graduated and had to leave.”
While at Brenau, Alexander joined Alpha Chi Omega sorority and earned her degree in speech. In 2002, she was inducted into the Brenau Alumni Hall of Fame.
“Brenau changed her life in all kinds of ways, for the best and for the better,” her daughter, Anna Alexander Jacobs, WC ’86, said at the ceremony. “She wants to give that opportunity to students she may never know but who are like her.”
Alexander served as a Brenau trustee, and Jacobs currently serves on the board. The pair, along with Alexander’s daughter and Jacobs’ sister, Christine Fitzgerald, WC ’84, all attended Brenau.
“This is sort of a full-circle moment,” Fitzgerald said. “I’d say it’s one of the most meaningful moments of her life, to be able to give back like this.”
Students eligible for the Alexander Family Scholarship should have a minimum 3.0 GPA, earning a degree in the arts and be enrolled in The Women’s College. Financial need will also be considered.
