UNC-W Scholarship Honors VR Counselor

For DeAnne Carroll, the student years at UNC-Wilmington were a struggle. She relied on financial aid, she worked at part-time jobs and at times, she recalls, she barely had enough to eat. But she made it through.

After graduation, she became a counselor with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation’s Wilmington office. There she has helped scores of people with disabilities achieve their career objectives—or in some cases simply keep their jobs after acquiring a disability.

Now, one of those individuals is paying her “forward.” This summer, Mark Griffis, one of Carroll’s former clients, and Wilmington-area businessman David Robertson endowed with a $30,000 gift the “DeAnne E. Carroll Just Believe Scholarship” to recognize her contributions in the field of vocational rehabilitation counseling.

The UNC-W scholarship is open to students at Carroll’s alma mater, Eastern Wayne High School, who have at least a 3.0 grade point average. It will be worth $1,000 per year for four years.

The university expects the endowment to grow. The scholarship’s namesake, for one, is counting on it.

“One day I hope it will mean a full four-year ride for someone. What a help that money can be!” says Carroll, who just this year added a master’s degree in counseling to her own academic credentials—and, at a September 13 luncheon, will get to meet “her” scholarship’s first recipient.

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Last Modified: September 1, 2006