April 4, 2006
Valdosta - Valdosta State University's College of Education has a new name, and a new gift to help put highly trained teachers in the classroom. "The gift is a little more than two million dollars," said Philip Gunter, Education Dean.
The college now bears the names of James L. and Dorothy H. Dewar, long time educators in the community who gave one of the largest single donations in VSU's history. "They were both classroom teachers, my dad was the superintendent of schools here, he was on the state Board of Education, it was their passion and I felt like it was the most appropriate way to honor them and give something back to the community," said Dewar.
"It will be used to fund projects we couldn't ordinarily fund with our basic state funding," said Gunter.
Projects like developing Centers of Excellence, a place where educators in the 41 county region the college serves can get all the resources they need to be better teachers. "Centers for materials, for professional development activities, for applied research that school districts are charged with doing today," said Gunter.
The money will also provide scholarships for for future educators, and new technology for those students to learn on. "We've received awards for our use of technology and certainly want to continue to be at the leading edge of that is one of our goals," said Gunter.
The college already has an outstanding reputation for turning out quality teachers. "The name of V.S.U. in teacher education is known nationally," said Gunter.
And the Dewar family hopes their generous gift will make that reputation even stronger.
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