The endowment will ensure the department has resources to sustain creative scholarly opportunities for students and faculty alike.

“Carolina is a microcosm of the world, and it is important for students to seek out and access as many different backgrounds and cultures as they can,” Michael-Bryant Hicks ’96 said. “I want to take away any number of fears that may prevent a student — who grew up like me — from studying abroad.”

One of the hallmarks of private support for Honors Carolina is the Go Anywhere initiative, established in 2017 by alumni Chad and Blake Pike, who both graduated in 1993. “The Go Anywhere platform played a critical role in launching my professional journey,” said Matthew Gillespie ’23.

In 2021, Oskar Czendze, a Ph.D. candidate in history, received an award from the Frances Carol Eizenstat Travel Fund to conduct research in Poland and Ukraine.

The Ishna J. Hall Excellence Fund, established by Greer and Bryan Pope, honors Hall’s dedication to empowering young women and underrepresented minorities at Carolina by funding study abroad experiences for undergraduates.

The Lori and Eric Sklut Undergraduate Experiential Learning Fund provides eager students with opportunities to venture outside of the classroom through study abroad and faculty-mentored research.

John and Marree Townsend’s commitments to UNC-Chapel Hill over the years have been both plentiful and purposeful — and none more so than their gift to the College of Arts and Sciences to establish the Townsend Family Strategic Initiatives Fund.