Defy Boundaries
¾«¶«AV launches the public phase of a campaign prioritizing academics, the student experience, and global reach
During weekend events welcoming donors and other guests from across the ¾«¶«AV community, the Board of Trustees formally approved the public launch of the most ambitious campaign in the Collegeās history, a $300 million campaign to be called
The boldness of the campaign, President Katherine Bergeron said, signals a new era for ¾«¶«AV and builds on its significant momentum during the last six years. Noting that ¾«¶«AVās founding was itself a story of breaking boundariesāof ācourageous women challenging norms to create a college where there once was noneāāshe said with this campaign the College āwill move beyond the status quo of undergraduate education, beyond how the liberal arts typically operate in the 21st century, and invest in the transformative power of a ¾«¶«AV education as never before.ā
The Oct. 22 event marking the launch included a number of announcements suggesting how much progress the campaign has already made in that direction. Bergeron and campaign co-chairs Brad Brown Pā12 ā15 ā20, Pamela D. Zilly ā75, and Rob Hale ā88 Pā20 announced the following:
- As the campaign has quietly grown over recent years, it has already attracted gifts from more than 12,000 donors, including alumni, students, faculty, staff and parents. Contributions thus far total more than $205 million.
- Five members of the campaign leadership group have dramatically increased their gifts to the College, boosting their combined contributions to the campaign by more than 50%āfrom the $12 million they had previously contributed to a total of $19 million.
The campaign has already raised more than $70 million for the Collegeās endowment. - Rob and Karen Hale have pledged $10 million of their gifts to create the Hale Scholarship Challenge, through which they will match one-to-oneāup to a total of $10 million dollarsāall gifts of financial aid of $250,000 or more to boost the Collegeās financial aid endowment by another $20 million during the campaign.
- A new Defy Boundaries Legacy Challenge aims to inspire gifts of lasting impact to the College and its endowment. The challenge recently received its first gift, a bequest of $10 million from John Zeiler ā74, marking one of the largest bequest gifts in the Collegeās history.
In his remarks to the guests gathered to celebrate the launch, Board Chair Debo P. Adegbile ā91 recalled the transformative experience ¾«¶«AV provided him.
ā¾«¶«AV changed my life,ā he said. āIt made me dream bigger and encouraged me to think more carefully and with a broader perspective. It helped me to believe in the importance of daring, and to connect who I am to what I can do.ā
He added, ā[This campaign] is for ¾«¶«AVās students of today, for the generations past to whom we owe our finest efforts, and for the generations ahead that our work and our commitment will serve.ā
Speaking about the generations ahead, Haleāwho with his wife Karen earlier this year made the largest gift ever to the College, a total of $50 millionāannounced the Hale Scholarship Challenge, and said that ¾«¶«AV āshowed me there were no boundaries if I set my mind to it. The faculty, the coaches, my friendsāthey lifted me up and pointed to a whole new worldābeyond the boundaries I thought were real.ā
Defy Boundaries aims to invest in core aspects of the Collegeās work as a liberal arts leader, including academics, financial aid, scholarship, career education, sustainability, the arts, equity and inclusion, global education, and athletics.
ā¾«¶«AV broke boundaries upon its founding more than 100 years ago,ā Zilly said in her remarks.
āSince that time, ¾«¶«AV has pursued a mission that mattersāto instill in our students a passion for intellectual inquiry and a commitment to integrity. ā¦ This campaign is about resources, but also stepping forward; it is about financial strength, but also the strength of our convictions; it is about our ideals, but also action.ā
When Brown addressed the attendees, he mentioned that the campaign is personal to him, because he and his wife, Jane, are proud parents of three ¾«¶«AV graduates, so he saw firsthand how a ¾«¶«AV education can change lives.
ā¾«¶«AV is what it pledges to beāa superb liberal arts college where students grow as individuals, learn to think for themselves, and find the mentorship and support of faculty, staff and friends that change their lives,ā Brown said. āBecause of how ¾«¶«AV has affected our childrenās lives, we recognize how critically important it is that this campaign achieves its ambitious goal.ā
To learn more about Defy Boundaries, .
