WINGATE — Area students in “early college” high schools can vie for a scholarship to complete their bachelor’s degree at Wingate University, thanks to the generosity of the late James and Bronnie Braswell and of attorney George Bower, who manages the couple’s charitable trust.
The Braswells settled in Wingate in the late 1930s. A land trader and farmer, James Braswell served as president of the State Bank of Wingate and chairman of the Union County Board of Commissioners. His wife was an elementary school teacher.
“They were active in the Wingate United Methodist Church, where Mrs. Braswell was my Sunday school teacher,” Bower explains. “The Braswells did not have children. They were humble people who chose to live modestly. It was their vision that their resources be used in perpetuity to help others in need.”
Early-college high school students take a mixture of high-school and college courses over four years, enabling them to graduate high school with two years’ worth of college course credit. To be eligible for the scholarship, students must have participated in an early college program and have earned an associate degree. They must live in Anson, Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Richmond, Scotland, Stanly or Union counties.
They also must demonstrate financial need.
Priority is given to those with the highest grade-point average, and recipients must maintain a minimum 2.5 GPA and complete a service project or summer internship to keep the scholarship.
According to the trust agreement, the goal of the scholarship is to “continue to promote access to higher education by those who are first-generation attendees and who have demonstrated financial need with the hope that one day they would return to their communities and live as servant leaders.”
It’s that lifestyle of service that Bower saw in the Braswells and has emulated. An attorney with Poisson, Poisson & Bower in Wadesboro, he served as legal counsel for Anson County from 1989 to 2002 and has served as town attorney for Ansonville, Peachland, Polkton and McFarlan.
Although he earned his degrees from the University of North Carolina and Wake Forest University, Bower has strong connections to Wingate. His mother and her siblings all attended Wingate, and his wife, Cynthia, is a 1987 alumna. Bower served as a member of the Board of Trustees from 2010 to 2013 and again from 2014 to 2017. During Homecoming this fall, at the University’s Blue Carpet Gala, Bower will be named an Honorary Alumnus.
Five Wingate University students have already received Gateway Scholarships from the Braswell Trust: Andres Jimenez-Rivas of Monroe, Mallory Martin of Peachland, Anthony McDaniel of Matthews, Jacklyn Acevedo of Albemarle, and Christian Habermeyer of Waxhaw.
To find out more about Wingate and the Gateway Scholarship for Early College Scholars, contact Valerie Graham, associate director of transfer and special admissions, at 704-233-8103.