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NEWS RELEASE

02-27-02

Contacts:
Carol Briggs Hodges, (336) 222-0477
Tom Mitchell, ISU Foundation, (515) 294-4077
Steve Sullivan, News Service, (515) 294-3720

ISU NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENTS TO BENEFIT FROM DONORS' GIFT

AMES, Iowa -- Like most American youth of the 1950s and '60s, Carol Briggs Hodges grew up in her Kossuth County home observing the stereotypes served up by television of the time. She learned how inaccurate those stereotypes were when she became a student at Iowa State University.

"As a child in the '50s, the cowboys and Indians TV shows and movies were a huge part of our culture. In those portrayals, the heroes and victims were, with few exceptions, from the cowboy side of the equation," said Carol Hodges, a 1972 ISU graduate. "We now know that this was a terribly one-sided view of what actually took place."

Hodges and her husband, Winston, have made a gift to Iowa State via the ISU Foundation to establish the Crazy Horse Scholarship, to be awarded to Native American students at Iowa State. The amount of the gift is $60,000, including the couple's contribution and a matching gift from their former employer. The scholarship is named in honor of Tashunka Witco, the historic Oglala Sioux leader popularly known as Crazy Horse. The scholarship will first be awarded in 2003.

"We chose to name the scholarship after Crazy Horse because he is an example of the Native Americans who fought to save the land their people had lived on for generations, as well as to preserve their way of life," said Carol Hodges. "These are causes near and dear to most rural Iowans."

The Crazy Horse Scholarship has the potential to help Iowa State recruit more Native American students. Currently, 79 Native Americans are enrolled at Iowa State. Iowa State American Indian Studies Program, started in 1972, is the university's oldest ethnic studies program. AISP currently boasts an enrollment of over 500 students and the active participation of eight academic departments.

The couple's gift is part of the "Investing in People" initiative, a two-year effort of the University and the ISU Foundation to raise private funds for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and faculty support. The initiative was announced by ISU President Gregory Geoffroy during his installation as Iowa State's 14th president on Oct. 6.

The Hodges' contribution will create a scholarship "endowment," in which only a percentage of the gift earnings is used annually for the scholarship. Excess earnings are invested in the endowment principal, so the value of the fund can be expected to grow over time.

"Winston and I both believe that Native Americans have been, for the most part, overlooked as a deserving minority group," said Carol Hodges. "We hope that our scholarship will provide Iowa State and the students the opportunity to get to know more about Native Americans in a positive and realistic light."

"Carol and Winston Hodges have chosen a wonderful way to have a lasting impact on Iowa State and its students," said Thomas J. Mitchell, ISU Foundation president and CEO. "Their scholarship will create numerous learning opportunities for individual students and the entire campus."

Hodges pursued a double major in sociology and Spanish at Iowa State. In 1977, after earning an MBA from the University of Nebraska-Omaha, she moved to North Carolina to begin a 20-year career with AT&T, where she worked in material management, human resources, manufacturing and other areas. Winston, who earned his bachelor's degree in economics from East Tennessee State, joined AT&T in 1970. He took early retirement in 1995 to launch a new business; Carol left AT&T two years later to join him. Their company, PVA Inc., headquartered in Burlington, North Carolina, provides a range of technology services and products to Fortune 500 companies and state and federal governments.

The Iowa State University Foundation is a private, non-profit corporation dedicated to securing and managing gifts and grants that benefit Iowa State University.

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