Novelist gives $1.1M to VCU

Bestselling novelist David Baldacci (B.A.'83/H&S; H.L.D.'01) and his wife, Michelle, have made a $1.1 million gift to VCU’s College of Humanities and Sciences in support of the Make It Real Campaign for VCU. The gift will establish a scholarship for political science students and create a fund to provide students with a variety of experiential learning opportunities.

Of the total, $1 million will create the Baldacci Student Experiential Learning Endowed Fund, which will grant academically promising and hardworking students of diverse areas of study and backgrounds with financial support so they can pursue internships, conferences, research and social entrepreneurship opportunities.

Awards from the Baldacci Student Experiential Learning Endowed Fund will be available to applicants who are rising juniors or rising seniors in good academic standing who are pursuing a degree in the College of Humanities and Sciences.

The remaining $100,000 will establish the Baldacci Political Science Endowed Scholarship, which will provide financial support to an undergraduate student majoring in political science. The scholarship will be awarded to ambitious students who are engaged as volunteers in the community or working part-time or full-time while attending VCU.

The Baldacci Political Science Endowed Scholarship is the first for the Department of Political Science and is one of the largest across the College of Humanities and Sciences.

“Our continuing partnership with VCU is incredibly meaningful to us both,” Baldacci says of himself and his wife. “The Endowed Fund and Endowed Scholarship will provide direct support to any university’s most important asset: its students. We look forward to helping VCU students in achieving their full potential as students and in their endeavors after graduation.”

To learn more about the College of Humanities and Sciences, contact Bethanie Constant, senior director of development, at (804) 828-4543 or constantb@vcu.edu.