Generous Gifts Support College of Education Campaign

The Think and Do the Extraordinary Campaign is the most ambitious fundraising effort in NC State’s history, with a goal of $1.6 billion of private support. The College of Education seeks to raise $21 million in alignment with this campaign.

Support of the college’s efforts enables the recruitment and retention of world-renowned faculty, increases the pipeline of high-quality future educators, prepares students for leadership in schools, universities and policy-making roles, and supports innovative research and programs that will increase student success and reduce achievement gaps in North Carolina.

To realize the college’s mission and vision, and truly “Think and Do the Extraordinary,” we will focus on growing our endowment through professorships, fellowships, scholarships and programmatic endowments. We will strive to quadruple the college’s current endowment from $2.8 million to $12 million, in addition to other fundraising efforts. Donors like Ann and Jim Goodnight, Anne Cooper Schout and Steve Oliver lighten the burden of a limited budget and are the cornerstone of our strength and success.

Ann and Jim Goodnight, longtime supporters of the College of Education and education throughout North Carolina, gave the college a significant advantage in attracting top faculty by making a leadership gift this fall. The Goodnight Distinguished Professorship in Education Innovation, a $1.5 million endowed position, will allow the College to hire a field-leading faculty member to advance the college’s educational impact through groundbreaking research, teaching and service. Matching funds will increase the gift’s total to $2.1 million.

Honoring the legacy of her father, a 1936 graduate of the College of Education, Anne Cooper Schout, Advisory Board chair and long­time College of Education supporter, made a $1 million commitment to establish the P.H. Cooper Professorship in STEM Education. This, the first fully­ endowed professorship in the college, honors Cooper and his belief in the value of higher education. This commitment will be fulfilled through a provision in Anne’s estate. She and her husband Jim, a mechanical engineering graduate of NC State, reside in New Bern.

Each of these gifts, along with many others, help make the College of Education one of the best of its kind in the entire nation. Through their continued support of the college, our donors make a lasting impact in the lives of our faculty, staff and students, and on the entire education system in North Carolina.