Around Campus: VSU gets $200,000 gift for a Stith scholarship

VSU gets $200,000 gift for a Stith scholarship

Virginia State University has received a $200,000 donation to establish a scholarship in honor of Millard D. "Pete" Stith Jr., Chesterfield's deputy county administrator.

The gift is from William H. Goodwin Jr. and his wife, Alice.

Stith served on the VSU board of visitors from 1994 to 1998 and as rector from 1996 to 1997. He was instrumental in organizing Chesterfield County's annual Black History Month concerts at VSU.

The endowed scholarship will be awarded based on academic achievement, financial need, leadership and community service. The amount will be based on income earned on the endowment's principal.

VCU will host science students next week

Virginia Commonwealth University will host the annual meetings of the Virginia Academy of Science and the Virginia Junior Academy of Science next week.

About 700 members from the two groups are expected for sessions Tuesday through Friday, with many staying on campus.

Members of the junior academy, which includes students in grades seven through 12, will present research for judging as well as attend a lecture with their older peers.

Both groups will hear Sheldon Retchin, CEO of the VCU Health System, discuss "Necessity is the Mother of Invention: The Story of the SwiPM3."

U.Va. student to study Jefferson garden plan

University of Virginia graduate student Lily Fox-Bruguiere has received a $4,000 award to research the botanic garden that Thomas Jefferson envisioned for the university.

Fox-Bruguiere, a master's student in architectural history from Charlottesville, discovered references to the botanic garden, which was never built, while researching Jefferson's years in France.

She hopes her research work, funded by the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment Fund of the Academical Village, will lead to construction of the garden.

Letters that Jefferson wrote during the last year of his life gave specifications for the garden, which he planned to plant on the slope where Alderman and Clemons libraries are now. The 6-acre garden, enclosed by a serpentine wall, was to lie behind the Anatomical Theatre for medical and botany students to use.

Tours of Melchers site set for this summer

The University of Mary Washington plans family-friendly tours this summer of Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont.

The tours, daily at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. from Memorial Day through Labor Day, are geared to children ages 5 to 12. Two children will be admitted free with each paying adult.

The tours will present vignettes throughout the 1790s house depicting experiences of children who either lived at Belmont or who visited the Melchers. Homemade ice cream parties, a puppet show and fishing for eels in the Rappahannock River are among other activities planned.

The university operates the 26-acre estate, which was the former residence of the artist Gari Melchers and his wife, Corinne.

The property is at 224 Washington St. in Falmouth, a quarter-mile west of the intersection of U.S. 1 and U.S. 17. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information is available at GariMelchers.org.

Karin Kapsidelis reports on higher education. Contact her at (804) 649-6119 or .