Valdry Center now Open for Business

About 18 months ago ground had just been broken and construction was beginning no the, now fully functional, Valdry Center for Philanthropy. In a partnership between the Southern University Foundation and the Valdry Foundation, the Valdry Center aims to promote philanthropy and philanthropic studies.
The center’s first floor features two modern classrooms with all the capabilities that students have come to expect: a plentiful supply of electrical outlets, ethernet ports, a projector with HDMI support, and drop down mics. The floor also features a large auditorium capable of holding about two to three hundred people. The auditorium is and has been available to outside organizations as a host location for balls, banquets, and other events.
The second floor features several offices ,a conference room, and acts as the administration for the Southern University Foundation and the center itself. The Annual Fund Director for the Southern University System Foundation, Robert Harrison, says that the building is here to serve Southern University and its community, “Not only is this a place for the foundation to rest, but it’s a philanthropy center, we’re going to have classes, we’re going to have lectures, we’re going to have seminars based around philanthropy.”
The center, in partnership with the Nelson Mandela School of Government at Southern University, will eventually begin offering a variety of different classes centering around philanthropy, research, and the different aspects that come with the management of nonprofits along with bachelor’s, a master’s, and PhD program. The center will offer courses such as Constituent Relationship Management: Securing Major Gifts and Increasing Non-Profit Financial Literacy, highlighting the center’s goal towards increasing awareness for philanthropy and philanthropic acts.
The Valdry Center and Valdry Foundation both get their name from the Valdry’s, a family comprised of Warren Valdry, his wife Virginia Valdry, and brother Leon Edward Valdry. These three Southern alumni have been making sizable donations to Southern University for about fifty years. The center serves to honor this family’s generosity by not only bearing their name, but by teaching and encouraging others to do the same.
“I told the dean and the president of this university, “I will come back, and give back to this university, and give back to the students of engineering,” said Valdry. Valdry then went out and encouraged and gathered other alums to also give back to their communities and give back to their universities.
The foundation gives out a number of different scholarships and grants based on both need and merit. The center provides the Southern University System Foundation central location on campus to continue its work by giving students direct access to the foundation’s staff. A scholarship recipient and volunteer at the Valdry center, Munachimnso Orimma, credits the foundation for helping him grow as a person, “They don’t just care about your GPA, they just want to see you grow as a person.”
The center offers the Southern University System several different advantages. This is just one of the many things that Southern University is doing to better itself and the community.