News

A new college-wide scholarship will help West Virginia University students at the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design get important financial support.

West Virginia often feels the ravages of hurricanes and tropical storms that hit U.S. coasts hundreds of miles away like Florence did last weekend in North Carolina. Even if the hurricane drops as little as two-to-four inches of rain, flooding concerns remain in parts of West Virginia.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University students in the fashion, dress and merchandising program will benefit thanks to a new scholarship established by program alumna and a textiles industry entrepreneur, Amy Bircher. The Amy Bircher and MMI Textiles Scholarship is an endowed fund that will support FDM students who show strong academic promise.   

In November 2017, Emily Perdue and Jason McKibben stood on the gym floor of Van High School looking out into a crowd of almost 1,000 people.

It was a Wednesday night and, traditionally, many of those people would be in church.

But when members of the Van, West Virginia, community heard representatives from West Virginia University would be in town to propose a new pilot educational program, churches moved their services to Tuesday.

People arrived by the busloads – and the informational meeting was standing room only.

The WVU team wasn’t prepared for the overwhelming interest and immediate support for the progr am they proposed; however, they returned to Morgantown knowing they had found the perfect partners.

This fall, Perdue, Extension specialist in 4-H youth agriculture, and McKibben, assistant professor of agricultural and extension education, will launch West Virginia P20, a pilot program that establishes an early college and STEM (Science, Technology, Education and Mathematics) academy in Boone County’s Van School District.