Between the two scholarship opportunities offered to Watauga Residential College students, only one provides the partial funding meant to help its students study abroad.

According to the Watauga Residential College website and the McFarlane Family International Travel and Research Endowment, students must be students of the WRC to apply. The students “must have completed 12 semester hours of investigation work, be enrolled in a project relevant to the study abroad and be mentored by a WRC faculty member.”

Following the brief summary, a link to the scholarship application follows.

The beginning of the application states the donor’s preferences for the endowment of the scholarship to be given towards “support to students currently active in the Watauga Residential College and enrolled in a university sponsored study abroad trip or coursework, be enrolled in a research project relevant to the study abroad opportunity, and be mentored by a WRC faculty member.”

The application itself asks for personal school information, the information of the applicant’s faculty advisor, research conducted by the applicant regarding the cost of the desired study abroad trip, how heshe will receive additional funding and a brief project description of what the applicant would want to achieve during hisher potential study abroad opportunity.

Dr. Harry Clark Maddux, professor of interdisciplinary studies and director of the Watauga Residential College, administers the McFarlane scholarship award.

Regarding backstory on the McFarlane’s and their generous endowment, Maddux talked of the McFarlane family including Appalachian State and WRC alumni.

“The McFarlane’s are business and civic leaders from the Raleigh area. Ms. McFarlane is the mayor of Raleigh. Their children attended Appalachian State University and Watauga Residential College and wanted to give back to Watauga after their children came here,” Maddux said.

Nancy McFarlane and Ron McFarlane have a history of giving back to family alma maters. According to the Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Pharmacy website, the couple both earned their bachelor’s degrees from the School of Pharmacy in 1980.

Both Nancy McFarlane and Ron McFarlane “have donated $250,000 to the school for an endowed professorship in pharmacy practice.”

Before that, they also established the Phi Delta Scholarship and the Nancy L. and Ronald H. McFarlane Scholarship at VCU.

The McFarlane’s have their own business stationed in Raleigh, North Carolina, called MedPro Rx Inc. The company is, according to the same website, “an accredited specialty infusion pharmacy that focuses on treatments for people with bleeding, autoimmune neuromuscular, rheumatologic disorders and other complex medical conditions.”

The opportunities offered to students through the internship given to Appalachian State, however, are unique from the pharmaceutical-related endowments given to VCU students.

“The award provides between $1,000 to $1,200 to assist a student who studies abroad either short-term or for a semester, which is deposited into their student bank account.

If more than one student is awarded the money during the academic year, the award is divided equally. The major benefit of the award comes in that students are able to pursue an independent research project, mentored by a faculty member, related to their work overseas,” Maddux said.

Maddux also discussed past opportunities in which receivers of the endowment were able to respectively pursue, such as research done on the biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef, ecotourism of Costa Rica and member cooperatives in southern France and the Basque region of Spain.

According to Maddux, along with the other qualifications listed on the website and application, students must also be able to come back to Appalachian State and present their work from their study abroad experience to the student and faculty body of the WRC.

For interested students, the McFarlane Family International Travel and Research Endowment deadline for Fall 2018 is April 15. The Spring 2019 semester deadline is Oct. 15

Story by Christina Beals, News Reporter.