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Mother and Daughter Endow Biology Scholarship at Lander University

Amanda-Wagoner-Rathgeber-and-Gina-Strait-TN.jpg
Gina Strait (left) and her daughter, Dr. Amanda Wagoner Rathgeber recently chose to endow the Amanda L. Wagoner Scholarship for biology majors at Lander University.

When Amanda Wagoner Rathgeber was set to graduate from Lander University in 2007, her parents established a scholarship for biology students in her honor. Their decision to make the generous gift was grounded by their first-hand experience of the impact scholarships can make in the life of a college student.

"Amanda was blessed to qualify for scholarships, and we as a family know their value," said Gina Strait, Amanda's mother. "Some scholarships were large, while others were smaller. When combined, though, they accounted for more than 95 percent of Amanda's college education funding."

While her parents contributed to the Amanda L. Wagoner Scholarship, Wagoner Rathgeber herself concentrated on establishing her own career in the field of animal medicine.

From when she was a child, Wagoner Rathgeber has known she wanted a career that involved working with animals. Currently serving as a veterinarian surgeon in Columbia, it's clear that now-Doctor Amanda Wagoner Rathgeber has achieved her goal.

All the years in between that were devoted to learning, training and interning would most likely not have been possible, though, without the financial assistance that came from the scholarships.

"Because of the scholarships I received as a student, I wasn't financially strapped with college debt when I graduated," Wagoner Rathgeber said.

As soon as her career gained traction, she decided to join her parents by helping to fund the scholarship that bears her name.

Endowing the scholarship
After the sudden death of her father, Randy, in 2014, Wagoner Rathgeber and her mother began to think of ways to preserve the scholarship if they too were unable to continue to support it.

"Through the scholarship, we wanted to do as much as we could to help other students by providing some form of financial help. We were concerned, though, about the possibility of that help going away if we were no longer able to support the scholarship for whatever reason," explained Strait.

After speaking with officials with The Lander Foundation, Wagoner Rathgeber and her mother decided to endow the scholarship.

With a regular scholarship, the donor gives a certain amount of money that's used to fund that scholarship. In order for the scholarship to recur annually.

An endowed scholarship, though, works differently. The donor gives a larger financial gift to the university for a specific purpose. The university then invests the funds from the gift, and uses the interest to permanently fund their scholarship.

"By making the decision to endow it, we're assured we can continue to help Lander biology students regardless of what the future holds," said Strait.

Amanda's journey to Lander
"I'll be honest; when it came time to select a college, Lander wasn't even on my radar but it quickly became my top choice," Wagoner Rathgeber said. "Because I grew up in Columbia, I was convinced that I would enroll at the University of South Carolina."

Taking the advice of her mother to at least visit other colleges and universities before making a decision, Wagoner Rathgeber visited Lander.

"I took the campus tour and immediately fell in love with Lander University. It was then that I realized that if I enrolled at Lander, I wouldn't be just a number to my professors and they would guide me along my journey to reach my dreams and goals. It was important to me to be able to connect with my professors on a personal level. While I didn't get that feeling at all from any of the other colleges, I certainly did at Lander."