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GivingTuesday ’24 to focus on increasing Catamount Club membership, athletics facilities

Western Carolina University will be ramping up support for the Catamount athletics program during this year’s edition of GivingTuesday, with a series of challenge gifts designed to help expand membership in the Catamount Club and increase funding for athletics facilities.  

WCU alumni award winners

Alumni return to WCU for annual homecoming celebration

Jamie Van Pelt’s drive from Florida to Western Carolina University isn’t the most riveting one. It’s several hours of rural highways, twists and turns and infamous Atlanta traffic, but when Van Pelt crests the hill south of Clayton, Georgia, he smiles.   

Alumni award winners

WCU honors four prominent alumni at Homecoming 2024

Western Carolina University paused Saturday, Nov. 2, to honor four prominent alumni – a former automotive industry executive who has supported Catamount athletics for decades, an accounting professional with extensive family ties to WCU, an award-winning educator and an up-and-coming public relations practitioner.   

RGB Portrait, a painting by Zack Schneider

Family establishes memorial scholarship fund to assist nontraditional art students at WCU

Nontraditional students working to earn a degree in an art-related major at Western Carolina University soon will have financial assistance to help them pursue their passion, thanks to a memorial scholarship fund established by the family of a recent WCU graduate who earned his degree after the age of 30.  

Alumni tower

1889 Impact Grants application deadline extended to Nov. 8

Because of the ongoing impacts of Hurricane Helene, Western Carolina University’s Division of Advancement and the WCU Foundation have extended the deadline for applications from faculty and staff interested in obtaining funding for projects through the 1889 Impact Grants Program.  

WCU homecoming parade in downtown Sylva

WCU to paint downtown Sylva purple, kick off Homecoming weekend Nov. 1

Western Carolina University alumni will paint the town purple Friday, Nov. 1, during a downtown Sylva Catamount takeover to launch Homecoming 2024 weekend.  

saddler2

Retired engineer who got his start at WCU creates new scholarship fund

A retired engineer who got started on his career path at WCU decades before the institution launched its own engineering degree has established a new scholarship to provide financial support to future students in the program.  

Wesley Cogdill

Gardner-Webb’s Wesley Cogdill appointed director of Catamount Club

Wesley Cogdill, executive director of the Bulldog Club at Gardner-Webb University, has been appointed associate athletics director and director of the Catamount Club.  

fac staff giving kickoff

Faculty members on campaign steering committee encourage colleague involvement

The “Fill the Western Sky” campaign, which will have its public launch this fall, is an effort to raise a minimum of $75 million in philanthropic support for WCU’s academic, student engagement and athletics programs.  

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