VATHEUER FAMILY FOUNDATION SUPPORTS CWU STUDENTS Inspired by their experience at Central and growing up in nearby Cle Elum, two brothers have been integral in helping students succeed through Vatheuer Family Foundation (VFF). VFF provides direct support to partners internationally supporting food systems, sustainable agriculture, and access to clean water. CWU is honored to be considered a partner to carry forth these key priorities to help humanity’s future. In the last fiscal year, VFF offered $55,000 in support to the College of Business agribusiness program, pre-medicine student scholarships, and Douglas Honors College emergency funds. The agribusiness program was designed to be accessible and fill education gaps for farmworkers in Central and Eastern Washington. VFF’s generosity is helping create resources to agribusiness program faculty to provide students with national networking opportunities and the time to create a more comprehensive agribusiness program. In addition to their support of agribusiness, VFF has helped six students become one step closer to obtaining their dream of attending medical school. In FY23, VFF doubled their support from FY22 by donating $20,000 to the Vatheuer Foundation Scholarship which provided four students with scholarships. One of the recipients says they made it through their senior year and graduated on time without having to take time off from studies, which wouldn’t have been possible without the scholarship. VFF also recognizes the need for programs to have the flexibility to meet student’s needs in real time. As such, they provided the Douglas Honors College with $5,000 for emergency funds to address times when a student finds themselves in a difficult situation and needs support to maintain their academic standing and momentum as a student. “CWU gave me a wonderful education,” said VFF Director Martin Vatheuer. “It’s been great working with CWU to help the next generation pursue their dreams. CWU has developed creative ways to help students from all kinds of backgrounds realize their potential.”
What started as a group capstone project ended in establishing a new endowed scholarship at CWU with Janet J. Britt (’23) committing $25,000 to create the Giving Back Business Scholarship Fund. When tasked with creating a project that created a positive impact and was something sustainable, the group of business students had a lot of ideas for how to help people, but most of their ideas were one-time activities. Though they could create a manual to have another group recreate the project in following years, Britt found that perpetuating impact was something important to her and eventually they agreed to fundraise the initial GIVING BACK BUSINESS SCHOLARSHIP
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sum of a scholarship fund. My hope is that this scholarship will have a deeper impact,” said Britt. “One- thousand dollars to a single student can be enough to keep them in school.”
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