August 30, 2010
Nursing alumna's passion: endowing scholarships
Nancy Franklin Reynolds, College of Nursing Class of ’68, has come to appreciate the positive impact an endowed scholarship can make in the life of a student recipient. She and her husband, Joe, have endowed two scholarships at USC: the Joseph and Nancy Franklin Reynolds Nursing Scholarship and the Joseph and Nancy Reynolds Business Scholarship.
Reynolds
is currently co-leading an effort with classmate Ann
Griffin Garris to complete the endowment of the
Class of 1968 Nursing Scholarship.
A History of Giving
The first endowed scholarship Reynolds established
was at The Citadel in memory of her first
husband, Fred J. Carter, a decorated F-4 pilot killed
during the Vietnam War.
“The Fred J. Carter Scholarship is a meaningful
way to honor Fred’s memory and also to financially
help a cadet who displays Fred’s personal and professional
qualities,” Reynolds said. “Getting to know
the cadet recipients is a gift to me, and it inspired
me to establish the two scholarships at USC.”
A 50th Anniversary Gift
In 2006, USC nursing dean Peggy Hewlett began
inviting alumni and friends of the college to serve
on a planning committee to mark the 50th anniversary
of the founding of the nursing school in 1957.
Reynolds chaired the committee, which oversaw a
yearlong celebration in 2007.
- The goal is to benefit the profession of nursing, help alleviate the nursing shortage, and enable the college to maintain its high-quality nursing education while adding sufficient faculty to teach more undergraduates.
As part of the 50th anniversary, Reynolds,
Garris, and other Class of ’68 alumni decided to
focus fund-raising efforts on scholarships. “I thought at the time, ‘What a great way to
remember what we all had been through together
and what we can do as a class to help continue
first-rate nursing education at the College of
Nursing,’” Reynolds said.
Thus far, the class has raised about $17,000
toward the Class of 1968 Nursing Scholarship.
Reynolds is seeking full class participation
to reach the full endowment level of $25,000.
The goal, she said, is to benefit the profession
of nursing, help alleviate the nursing shortage, and
enable the college to maintain its high-quality nursing
education while adding sufficient faculty to teach
more undergraduates. “This will be our legacy.”
About Reynolds
Reynolds was a charter member of the
College of Nursing Partnership Board and the
Advancement Subcommittee, and supports the
College’s Simulation Lab and the University’s Global
Humanities and Disaster Education Fund.
In her
spare time, she volunteers as an unpaid faith community
nurse at Shandon United Methodist Church.
