The Melvin Douglas and Victoria Kay Ivester Foundation, Inc. has donated $100,000 to Brenau University to establish The David L. Barnett Scholarship.
The scholarship honors Barnett, who became Brenau’s 11th president in February, and his 19-plus years of service at the university. Barnett said he was humbled to be honored by the Foundation and pleased the funds will support students.
“At Brenau, we believe higher education is worth the investment because knowledge combined with purpose can serve the greater good of our communities,” Barnett said. “Through their ongoing and generous support of Brenau and our students, the Ivester Foundation has shown they share this belief. I’m pleased that these funds will help make the dream of attaining a college degree a reality for generations of students to come.”
The initial gift will be invested, and once the fund is fully endowed, scholarships will be awarded to first-generation students at Brenau who demonstrate financial need, are in good academic standing, and are from Hall County, Georgia, or graduated from a high school in Hall County.
The Foundation also contributed $40,000 to the Anne A. Skleder First Generation Endowed Scholarship Fund. Brenau’s Board of Trustees authorized the scholarship earlier this year to honor Brenau’s 10th president, who died in October 2023.
“The Ivester Foundation wanted to honor the memory of Dr. Skleder and recognize Dr. Barnett’s elevation to president of Brenau,” Lynn Darby, president of the Ivester Foundation, said. “We thought the best way to honor both was through a perpetual ability to grant scholarships to worthy students of Brenau. We are pleased to provide this support and to congratulate Dr. Barnett.”
The Barnett Scholarship is the third scholarship fund endowed by the Foundation in the past year, including the Mary Louise Roddy Scholarship and the Virginia Dale Rochester Scholarship. Earlier this semester, the Foundation awarded scholarships to six Ivester Scholars and the first recipients of the Roddy and Rochester scholarships.
The donation of scholarship funds totaling nearly $250,000 via these four endowed funds is the most recent example of the support of Doug and Kay Ivester, both personally and through their Foundation, to Brenau.
Establishing an endowed scholarship at Brenau requires a gift of at least $50,000 to the university to support its students.
