The University of Dallas English Department Dona S. Gower Memorial Endowed Scholarship
is made possible by a generous donation from the Athena Foundation, which Dr. Gower
founded.
Dona (Spawn) Gower, who graduated from UD with an English Major in 1964, went on to receive a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. She was a passionate and inspiring teacher of literature at the college and high school levels, and in the last three decades of her life worked with non-profit foundations in Dallas dedicated to educating teachers. She created the Athena Foundation solely with this mission--to allow the renewal and enlargement of purpose for teachers through a communal experience of classic texts of literature.
Here is an essay Dr. Gower wrote and presented to the Athena Foundation.
The education Dr. Gower received at the University of Dallas was the foundation for her love of classic literature and the basis for her passionate belief in the power of literature to transform the lives of those who study it. Rising senior English majors may submit an application for the scholarship, including a brief essay reflecting on the importance of the role of the teacher.
For more information regarding the endowment application please contact the English Department. If you would like to support the Dona S. Gower Endowment please click on the link below alumni.udallas.edu/gower.
Gower Scholarship Recipients
2015-16 Ann Kuehl
2016-17 Mary Shannon McFall
UD students not only read St. Augustine's Confessions in Rome, traveling to Ostia to marvel at the place in which, according to Book IX, St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica, had a joint mystical vision of God -- they also travel 4.4 miles from the Irving campus to read the text with residents of South Irving.
+ Read MoreAs you know if you’ve read even some of our first UD Reads book, "All the Light We Cannot See," it’s possible to build a radio from random, scavenged parts, as long as you can find the necessary random, scavenged parts, as Werner does in the book. This is also essentially what Assistant Professor and Department Chair of Physics Jacob Moldenhauer did as well: He scavenged parts from the Physics Department, and built a radio.
+ Read MoreThe University of Dallas Board of Trustees announced today that it has unanimously selected Thomas S. Hibbs, Ph.D., BA '82 MA '83, to serve as the university's ninth president. The first alumnus of UD to be president, Hibbs has served as dean of the Honors College and distinguished professor of ethics and culture at Baylor University since 2003.
+ Read More
