Women’s Foundation To Build Scholarship House

By Susan Malandrino

Starting in fall 2008, a select group of students will be the first to live in the new Virginia Business and Professional Women’s Foundation Inc. Scholarship House while pursuing their degrees at Old Dominion. A nonprofit organization dedicated to providing women with information, resources and educational opportunities, the VBPW Foundation chose Old Dominion for the house following a survey of state colleges and universities. It is providing $500,000 to construct and furnish the house, which the university will maintain.

To be built on a vacant lot across 49th Street from Gresham Hall, the home will provide free housing for eight women students and one resident assistant. (The students are required to pay a small amount to cover utilities and a maintenance reserve fee.)

Students who apply to live in the house must be sophomores, juniors or seniors, with a minimum 3.2 grade point average and have demonstrated financial need. Those selected must maintain the GPA requirement to live there in succeeding years. Students from any major may apply.

The scholarship house concept is modeled on successful ventures at several Florida schools, including Florida State University, University of Central Florida and Florida Atlantic University, according to Diane E. Trobaugh, who serves as the VPBW Foundation’s treasurer, member of its board of trustees and chair of the Scholarship House project. She hopes the house will become a “lasting legacy” for the university.

“In a family-friendly environment, these students will have the chance to cultivate leadership skills that will serve them throughout their lives,” she said. “The house will also allow them to build friendships as they pursue their goals.”

Elizabeth Taraski, ODU associate vice president for development and alumni relations, sees the home as an innovative approach to scholarship.

“Since a student’s living environment is so integral to their campus experience and academic success, this house will provide them with wonderful opportunities,” she said. “We want a wide variety of students who can share and learn from the diversity that each may bring to the home.”

Taraski added: “This is a significant and unique gift to the university, for which we are very grateful. I don’t know of any other organization that does this sort of thing.”

More information about the foundation can be found online at www.VABPWFoundation.org.