Longwood alumna Joan Brock and her husband Macon Brock Jr., co-founder of Dollar Tree, donated $5.9 million to the university toward the creation of more “place-based” immersive learning experiences for students, announced Longwood University’s Office of Public Relations on Thursday, Nov. 17.
The release stated the money will fund the Brock Endowment for Transformational Learning. The endowment's aim is to fund more courses modeled after Longwood Cormier Honors College’s Yellowstone National Park program, called LU@YNP.
Created a decade ago, the LU@YNP transdisciplinary course begins off-campus, with work assigned prior to the start of the first summer session, then sends students to Yellowstone to examine the stewardship of the park on location.
The endowment will fund two fellowships each year, beginning in the spring of 2017, for professors across departments to develop courses that will then be available to students.
“The Brock Endowment will tap the imaginations and energy of our faculty, and allow us to multiply the number of students who enjoy these transformational learning experiences. I could not imagine a more powerful investment in a new generation of citizen leaders,” said Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley IV in the release.
Faculty chosen for the fellowship will look to create courses that cross disciplines and cultures while examining challenges both locally and nationally, according to the release.
The Brocks have donated to the university several times, including the naming gift for Brock Commons. The couple was named “Outstanding Philanthropists” by the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2015 for donations not only to Longwood, but several charities, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Randolph-Macon College, Macon Brock’s alma mater.
“I have always felt so deeply proud of Longwood for taking on the serious work of preparing students for lives of citizen leadership,” said Joan Brock in the release. “In talking with President Reveley in recent months about how we could make a real difference, this idea took shape. Macon and I firmly believe that in the years and decades to come, students will be drawn to Longwood by the opportunity to have the types of experiences this program will create, and those experiences will have a profound impact on them.”
The Rotunda reached out to the Brocks for comment, but they were unavailable for interview in time for print.
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Longwood University alumna Joan Brock and her husband, Macon, donated $5.9 million, the largest donation ever received by the university, toward the development of more place-based courses similar to the decade-old Yellowstone National Park program.
