The late Beulah Mann enrolled at the University of Central Arkansas, then Arkansas State Normal School, in the 1920s; a time when a higher education was a rare privilege for most, especially for women. She studied teacher education at the university and in 1922, earned her state teachers license.
Education was important to Mann, so important, in fact, that on Wednesday, March 17, her estate provided the university with a $1.2 million gift. This gift, which is the largest individual gift the university has ever received, has been designated to provide scholarships for future teachers studying at UCA.
?We are going to continue in the areas we do well in, liberal arts, nursing and physical therapy, among others, but we are also going to return to our roots,? UCA President Lu Hardin said. ?This gift will directly affect hundreds of future teachers, and it will indirectly benefit thousands of young people whose lives are touched by the teachers who earn a higher education with the help of this scholarship money.?
In 1985, Mann, and her son, Billy, established a scholarship at UCA in memory of daughter/sister, Carolyn, who received a Bachelor of Science in Education from the university in 1958. She was a guidance counselor at Cabot High School for 12 years before her death in 1974 at the age of 43.
Scholarships from the $1.2 million gift will be available in the fall of 2005. Approximately $60,000 in scholarship money will be available annually through this scholarship fund.
Kelley Erstine, vice president for Development and Alumni Services, called the university?s largest single gift an occasion for honor and celebration. ?This is a monumental and hallmark day at UCA,? he said.
-Jennifer Boyett
