Generous gifts from Glen Bolger and Carol Farquhar P’19 and Jeffrey and Marci McGowen Daly P’20 support one of the top priorities of the Elon LEADS Campaign.
Endowment gifts from Glen Bolger and Carol Farquhar P’19, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Jeffrey and Marci McGowen Daly P’20, of Los Angeles will establish two scholarships that will help make global study possible for students with financial need. Global study is one of the five high-impact learning programs called the Elon Experiences. Creating more opportunities for students to participate in the Elon Experiences through scholarships is one of the top priorities of the $250 million Elon LEADS Campaign.
Elon’s commitment to global study and helping students with financial need inspired both families to support global engagement scholarships as part of the campaign.
“We’ve always thought that global education is an important part of our children’s education, and all of our children have done studies abroad,” Carol Farquhar says. “We liked that Elon makes it an integral part of the overall curriculum, and that they make it easy for students to do it with options like Winter Term, during the summer, and full-semester immersion.”
“For me, education is important and helping students is important. It resonates with me,” Jeffrey Daly says. “We supported global studies because it’s an important mission for Elon. The most important thing is that the scholarship be impactful.”
Once fully funded, the Glen D. Bolger and Carol A. Farquhar Global Engagement Scholarship and the Jeffrey F. and Marci McGowen Daly Global Engagement Scholarship will assist Elon students with demonstrated financial need who are pursuing global engagement opportunities through either the university’s Study Abroad or Study USA programs.
Woody Pelton, dean of global education at Elon, thanked the two families for their generosity. He added that the demand is high for scholarship funding to make global education available to students with financial need. Last year the Isabella Cannon Global Education Center awarded more than $750,000 in need-based global engagement scholarships to more than 300 students, including funds made possible by generous gifts from donors.
“Scholarship assistance from friends of Elon makes the university’s priority of access to a global experience a reality for almost every Elon student by lowering the barrier of cost,” Pelton says. “Over the past five years, Elon has awarded need-based global engagement scholarships to over 1,200 students, closing the need gap on this important Elon experience.”
Jeffrey and Marci Daly are members of Elon’s Parents Council, and their daughter Maddy is a rising senior majoring in environmental studies. Jeffrey Daly is a managing director with the investment company Goldman Sachs and Marci Daly is an owner of Actyve Volleyball, which offers coaching, practice facilities, summer camps and college recruiting services. Previous gifts from the couple have supported scholarships and the Phoenix Club. In Los Angeles, the family has supported scholarships that opened the door for students with need to attend private schools.
“If you can get people to a good place like Elon and give them an opportunity, it can be life-changing for them,” Jeffrey Daly says. “I wanted to try and support the school because it’s been a great place for our daughter. I will always have a soft spot for those who have financial difficulty in going to a school like Elon.”
Bolger and Farquhar have also been generous donors to Elon, supporting the Club Swim Team, the Parents and Grandparents Fund and Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences. They have three daughters, including Torie ’19, who graduated from Elon with degrees in political science, international studies and Spanish. She is now working for Public Opinion Strategies, where her father is co-founder and a partner. Public Opinion Strategies is a leader in political, public policy and corporate polling, market research and political consulting.
Farquhar says her family believes in the importance of global study through their own travel experiences. The family started international travel in 2001 when Torie was 3 years old.
“I think it gives them a confidence in themselves. They can get out of their comfort zone, leave the United States and go someplace where they don’t speak the language or are learning the language,” she says. “It helps them problem solve. When you travel, it doesn’t always go as you plan.”
Bolger agreed with a laugh and added, “We like to say, ‘it’s not an adventure until the first thing goes wrong.’ When you’re overseas, things can go wrong and handling those situations is a good skill to learn.”
Making these opportunities available to students who might not otherwise be able to study abroad is indicative of the impact of scholarships. “College isn’t cheap, and we really do believe that being able to study abroad and have a global education is an important part of the education process,” Farquhar says. “Even a small scholarship that helps a student go someplace different and get a different view of the world is a little piece we can add to their education.”
About The Elon LEADS Campaign
Global Engagement Scholarships are one of the main funding priorities of the Elon LEADS Campaign. The university launched the public phase of the campaign on April 5. With a $250 million goal, Elon LEADS is the largest fundraising campaign in the university’s history and will support four main funding priorities: scholarships for graduates the world needs, access to engaged-learning opportunities such as study abroad, support for faculty and staff mentors who matter and Elon’s iconic campus. To date, donors have contributed $172 million toward the overall goal.
Every gift to the university—including annual, endowment, and estate and other planned gifts—counts as a gift to the campaign, which will support students and strengthen Elon for generations to come. To learn more about how you can make an impact, visit www.elonleads.com.