Donors can support scholarship, faculty, facilities and more
As the second annual WVU Day of Giving approaches on Wednesday, November 14, 2018, I come to our School of Dentistry family and supporters already knowing your propensity toward philanthropy.
I was deeply touched last year when you committed more than $300,000 to the dental school where it is our mission and pleasure to provide an exemplary integrated dental and dental hygiene academic program, excellent patient care and unquestionable advancement in oral health awareness in West Virginia.
Even more so, our health sciences and other academic colleagues were stunned at the 70 gifts you supported in just 24 hours.
Before you receive this year’s “ask” on the November 14, 2018 Day of Giving, as an endodontist and as any dental professional would appreciate, I want to share with you precisely how your “giving” impacts the School of Dentistry.
In 2002, our school operated with ten endowed scholarships. That year, donors and supporters made the expensive investment into dental school a little more manageable for 12 different recipients.
Skip ahead to 2018 and 37 scholarships were distributed to 46 of our DDS students, and 20 scholarships were awarded to dental hygiene students.
Last year, when we asked you for further commitment to existing funds, we also asked that you consider a new undertaking. A faculty fund was created to enrich the teaching experience for existing faculty and intrigue the most qualified educators to become a part of the WVU School of Dentistry.
The $200,000 investment, made possible through individual donations and a match from the School of Dentistry Alumni Association, has already provided for faculty development opportunities including continuing education courses for advancement.
As important as it is for us to provide for our existing faculty, succession planning is also necessary. For instance, the state’s only maxillofacial prosthodontist has devoted close to three decades of his career to the WVU School of Dentistry. When Dr. Mohssen Ghalichebaf (our beloved Dr. Moe as we know him) will be retiring within a few years, and there is currently no one who is qualified to replace him on the faculty. With the rapid expansion of the WVU Cancer Institute and construction of the new WVU Medicine Children’s tower, the School of Dentistry would have no one to provide services for treatment of our children with cleft palate or for those individuals who have undergone radical cancer surgeries of the head and neck regions.
While we dread the thought of retirement of some of our leaders, we want to be certain that when they set off to enjoy their hard-earned relaxation the School of Dentistry is set up to continue excellence in education and care following their departure.
A portion of the newly developed faculty fund will allow us to assist our future educators who seek the specialized training we have become known for thanks to the precedent of existing faculty.
And, while those strengths are consistent and anchors of our school, there is an endeavor for improvement you may consider on the upcoming WVU Day of Giving.
Your School of Dentistry is moving forward, working with Health Sciences Facilities Planning, to provide much needed and long-awaited renovations. We are beginning with critical areas. The first space will house Academic and Student Affairs. We have acquired space that we did not previously have to move these offices into a more efficient configuration.
This first move is crucial as it will allow us to use those vacated Academic and Student Affairs offices to create a modern Urgent Care, Radiology, and Patient Registration/Patient Waiting area conducive to our patient and student needs.
Renovation of this area will enhance the appearance and presence of the School of Dentistry providing a welcoming ‘front door’ to our school and student clinic services.
Your gift on Day of Giving to the Facility Fund will help to support these essential and highly anticipated first steps to revitalize your school.
So, whether you choose to support
- scholarship
- faculty fund
- facilities fund
- Dental Century Fund
- or a fund of your choosing,
know that your gift matters. Know that your gift will make a difference. Know that your gift is critical to our future.
The qualities that make us outstanding in dental education have long been our small class sizes, committed faculty, outreach, rural oral health focus and partnerships for advancement.
You are our greatest partners.
Dean Borgia
