Dear Fellow Catamounts,
As I look back at 2022 there were many memorable moments and highlights for both the WVU Potomac State College (PSC) and the PSC Alumni Association. PSC welcomed Dr. Chris Gilmer as the new campus president. Dr. Gilmer has been an ardent supporter of the PSC Alumni Association from the beginning. We look forward to continuing to build upon our most important partnership between the PSC Alumni Association and the College.
For the PSC Alumni Association, 2022 was an outstanding year. We had our first-ever Alumni Engagement Survey. Your responses allowed us to create a road map to better help both students and alumni. Our Board of Directors also got a much-needed influx of new board members who are actively taking on the role of further building the alumni association.
Homecoming activities were spectacular! We started the day with an alumni brunch, and moved on to the alumni baseball game, as well as men’s and women’s soccer, and ending with the PSC Alumni Awards Banquet. The Banquet was the best attended in recent memory. From all indications, it was also one of the best overall. Honored were Nicholas Gardner with the Young Alumni Award, Matty Staudt with the Alumni Achievement Award, and Dinah Courrier with the Distinguished Service Award.
Earlier in the year, the PSC Alumni Association and WVU PSC Library co-sponsored the Two Regimes Project, an online viewing of the film “Two Regimes – A Mother’s Memoir of the Holodomor and the Holocaust” as part of the 90th anniversary year of the Holodormor atrocities committed by the Soviet regime against Ukraine. After the film there was a discussion with the granddaughter of the author, and others from Two Regimes Project tying in both historical and current happenings in Ukraine.
Your donations helped fund five one-time scholarships for the Summer Boost Program, designed to help currently enrolled students increase their cumulative GPA and earn course credit during the summer term. By offering these one-time scholarships, we can help eligible students stay on track for graduation.
We also funded a trip to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire in Manheim, PA, for students enrolled in fall literature courses, English and Secondary Education English majors, and students in the WVU PSC Honors Program. This trip has been offered for the past 15 years and the alumni association was pleased to be able to help it continue.
In 2022, the PSC Alumni Association provided $1,500 in prizes for the Keyser’s Got Talent Show. We also authorized $2,000 to help fund a digital recognition screen for the PSC Athletics Department. A donation was provided to the American Legion Boyce-Houser Post 41 to help in upgrading the Edward Kelley Memorial in front of the old Keyser High School. Also, a donation was made to the Catherine Parish Memorial Nursing Scholarship.
Refreshments for the White Coat Ceremony. This ceremony celebrates students’ entry into the study of nursing and highlights their commitment to professionalism, humanism, and compassion in their clinical studies.
Thanks to your generous donations, the PSC Alumni Association Scholarship was revived, but we were also able to reach endowment status, allowing us to help needs-based students in perpetuity. Our first scholarship recipient was named this spring. The scholarship was awarded to Abigail Peace. Abigail is a biology major from Berryville, VA. She was awarded $3,880 for the 2022-23 academic year.
As we move further into 2023, the board is working on continuing to fund the same programs and events as last year, as well as adding new ones. It promises to be an even better year!
We have already provided $1,000 for Keyser’s Got Talent first place prize and hope to continue funding many of the same wonderful programs we did last year. We are also working on new programs for this year.
We will be participating in the WVU Day of Giving on Wednesday, March 22. We will be promoting the following three funds:
- Potomac State General Scholarship Fund (2S901)
- President’s Unrestricted Annual Campaign Fund (Science Hall Renovations) (2U113)
- Potomac State College Alumni Association Scholarship (3Z1076)
You can read more about the WVU Day of Giving in this newsletter and learn how you can participate in giving throughout the year.
In cooperation with PSC, we are starting a mentorship program to help students as they move through their college years and transition to the working world. You can read more about this program, and volunteer to become a mentor in this newsletter.
We also continue to honor deserving alumni. The board most recently named Dr. Edward Richards as this year’s Whitmore-Gates Scholar — Outstanding Alumni. Dr. Richards’ name will be engraved on the Scholar’s Wall located on Campus Drive in front of Academy Hall. He will also be honored during PSC Recognition Day on Sunday, April 30. Learn more about Dr. Richards and his accomplishments in this newsletter.
If you know of a deserving alumnus for one of our awards, please let us know by filling out the online nomination form.
Finally, we would like to thank you for your continued support of the WVU Potomac State College and the PSC Alumni Association. Our members have been generous in their donations of time, talent, and money. Your tax-deductible donation continues to help us support student, faculty, and alumni programs. As President Christopher Gilmer recently told me, “We would be nowhere without our alumni.”
Let’s Go Catamounts!
Pam Wilkinson
President – Potomac State College Alumni Association
Mailing Address: 101 Fort Avenue, Box 91, Keyser, WV 26726
Email: psc-alumni@mail.wvu.edu
Phone: 304-788-6840