West Virginia State University officials on Monday received a $1.75 million gift, which will be used to fund scholarships for as many as 30 students each year.
The donation, gifted by BrickStreet Insurance's nonprofit foundation, is the largest in school history. It will expand and permanently endow the BrickStreet Scholars Fund, which was established in 2013. It also will provide additional funding for the university's new athletic complex.
WVSU President Brian Hemphill said the gift will help the university reach its potential and change the lives of students "for generations of Yellow Jackets to come."
The donation is the second time BrickStreet has given to WVSU.
BrickStreet CEO Greg Burton, who presented the gift to university officials on Monday, said he is encouraged by the university's transformation since Hemphill took over in 2012.
BrickStreet's first donation to WVSU, a $500,000 commitment over 10 years, established the BrickStreet Scholar's Fund. Burton said Monday's gift permanently endows that fund.
The first scholarship will be awarded next fall.
An endowed scholarship is a permanent gift with guaranteed funding. Upon receiving an endowed donation, a university invests the donated money and funds scholarships by earning interest. The initial gift is not used.
Scholarship eligibility will be open to any student, though preference will be given to those in business, information technology, mathematics, natural and health sciences, safety or loss and insurance programs. To receive the four-year scholarship, students must have an ACT composite score of 20 or a 950 on the SAT and maintain a 3.0 grade point average.
Burton said a portion of the fund will be used to benefit students whose parents are disabled or died from a workplace injury. BrickStreet specializes in worker's compensation insurance.
BrickStreet and WVSU officials will form a committee to select scholarship recipients.
In addition to establishing the scholarship, BrickStreet's gift will help fund the university's Gregory V. Monroe Athletic Complex, which is used by academic and athletic programs. BrickStreet already has the naming rights to the facility's weight room.
The donation also nearly fulfills a university fundraising goal to raise $18 million by 2017, a campaign that has netted the college $16.8 million since it was started in 2014.
The university received about $6 million of that total this year. During his state of the university address last month, Hemphill said the school, at that time, had received $4.2 million from more than 1,100 donors.
With 19 months left in the campaign, Hemphill is confident the university will exceed its capital goal. On Monday, he predicted the university would reach its goal by the end of the fiscal year in June.
Burton said the BrickStreet Foundation would make other endowments to at least eight schools in the near future. Of the $7.25 million it plans to donate, Burton said the Foundation's gift to WVSU is the largest.
Reach Samuel Speciale at sam.speciale@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-7939 or follow @samueljspeciale on Twitter.