Hampden-Sydney College receives $2.45M in anonymous donations

The funds will be used toward a biology laboratory and need-based financial aid.

Published April 24, 2020 by Sydney Lake

Hampden-Sydney College announced Friday that it received two anonymous gifts totaling $2.45 million to establish a biology laboratory and add to the college’s need-based scholarship funding. 

A $1 million gift will establish the Hinton Baxter Overcash Immersive Biology Laboratory in the Pauley Science Center, which is expected to be completed by fall 2021. The lab is named in memory of Overcash, who was a biology professor at the college from 1922 to 1965. 

The space will be used by students to prepare them for graduate programs at Eastern Virginia Medical School, the George Washington University School of Medicine, the University of Lynchburg and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, with which the college has graduate school agreements. 

“This new space recognizes and honors Professor Overcash’s legacy of effectively equipping his students with the knowledge and discipline necessary for careers in medicine,” President Larry Stimpert said in a statement. “This gift recognizes the contributions of one specific faculty member, but it also pays tribute to the central role faculty members have in preparing Hampden-Sydney graduates for a lifetime of service and accomplishment.”

Another $1.45 million gift will add to the college’s endowment and be used for scholarship funding. It will also be used toward the college’s four-year Carpenter Foundation challenge. 

In 2017, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation promised the university $4 million in funding for need-based financial aid to be donated in four annual $1 million installments. These installments are contingent on the college raising $4 million in cash for each $1 million portion of the Carpenter funds.

As of Dec. 31, the college had raised $8 million and received $2 million in Carpenter grants. 

“Among our highest priorities is making the benefits of a Hampden-Sydney education accessible to any talented young man who wishes to attend,” Heather Krajewski, vice president for college advancement, said in a statement. “Thanks to the generosity of this alumnus, Hampden-Sydney is now more than a quarter of the way toward the current year goal of raising $4 million in scholarship endowment in order to receive an additional $1 million from the Carpenter Foundation.”

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