From alumna Carrie Perkins Davis, Class of 1914, running a bookmobile for local children in her Eastern North Carolina hometown, to three generations of UNCG School of Education graduates in the family, to creating multiple funds supporting faculty and students, Carrie’s family has had a generational history of enhancing the realm of education.
Their philanthropy honors this history. The Carrie Davis Ponder ‘58 Endowed Scholarship in Education was established in 2012 by Carrie and her husband, Reggie, to honor Carrie’s education at Woman’s College. The Ponders recently added to their gift, further supporting students studying education at UNCG.
Carrie Ponder is the aunt of Jennifer Smith Hooks ’76. Jennifer and her husband, Jake, established the Carrie Perkins Davis/Katherine Davis Smith Scholarship in Education in 2013, honoring Jennifer’s grandmother and mother, and the Hooks Distinguished Professorship in STEM Education in 2016.
Dr. Edna Tan, who recently received the high honor of being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement for Science, currently holds the Hooks Distinguished Professorship. Among many other things, she notes, the support from the professorship makes a big difference in the engaged research she and her doctoral assistant Dr. Ti’Era Worsley are able to do at The Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club of Greensboro. There they run a community-focused STEM program for middle and high school youth that integrates STEM practices with community wisdom and resources, with a focus on making education accessible to students from minority communities, especially African American students. The funding from the professorship has allowed her the flexibility and resources to accommodate larger numbers of students, purchase more materials, and expand program activities. In the last two years, it was vital, she explains, in establishing a virtual, COVID-safe version of the program that is both rigorous and responsive to challenges brought on by the pandemic.
“To be given that level of trust means a lot and we are so appreciative,” Tan says. “The Hooks family is allowing us to push the envelope.”
The program is important, she notes, because it uses the current hands-on “maker” movement in STEM to empower children who have been historically marginalized in traditional STEM instruction. Families of all cultural backgrounds do creative and STEM-relevant work in their homes. During the Boys & Girls Club classes, Tan and Worsley engage with the “making” the students are already doing with their family and draw connections to STEM, helping to make the field more relatable to children who may be alienated by typical STEM classes. “We want to show what kids are already making at home and what they’re doing in the program and combine them together.”
It also provides an important place of safety and emotional support for the students, which has been particularly vital during the COVID pandemic.
As Worsley says, it’s important for them to “feel like the STEM space that’s created is one where they can just breathe, where they don’t have to be on point. And they’re granted that, to just be honest and open and real about what’s happening.”
From playful creative projects to making “Angel Cards” for lost loved ones due to COVID, the classes become a place where the students are guided to explore their creativity and use it to process sometimes difficult subjects. It can be challenging and hard-hitting, Tan says. “But it is STEM in the here and now – that’s relevant to your life – that we can hopefully be supportive of.”
“We are pushing really hard to be cutting edge.”
— Dr. Edna Tan,
Impact over many decades
The Ponders have a generations-long connection to UNCG, and a distinguished legacy in education. Carrie Perkins Davis graduated from the State Normal School in 1912. Four of her daughters – Elizabeth, Hilda, Katherine, and Carrie – graduated from what became Woman’s College with degrees in education. And Katherine’s daughter, Jennifer Smith Hooks, graduated from UNCG in 1976.
Katherine Davis ’44 
Elizabeth Davis ’45 
Hilda Davis ’56 
Carrie Davis ’58
The Carrie Davis Ponder ‘58 Endowed Scholarship in Education supports student teachers at the School of Education, helping the career field stay financially accessible to all aspiring educators. Together with the Hooks professorship and the Davis-Smith Endowed Scholarship, the funds help spread impactful education to the community – and further the family’s desire to support education.
These interlocking systems of support aid students financially, ensuring that education can be accessible to all. They also create an environment where student teachers are supported by the institutions around them, feeling comfortable and confident to excel in their field. And, they allow these students to go into their community and lift up future generations of students to ensure they can be the best they can be for their future.
“What has historically been silenced,” Tan says, “the voices and ways of being of brilliant Black youth, now has a chance to emerge. This is especially critical in the field of academia, where there’s so much stock set in precedence, in what has been done. We are pushing really hard to be cutting edge and to say ‘here are the theoretical frameworks we need to consider.’”
Anonymous gift, visible impact
Often an act of giving spurs another – even from those you don’t know.
An anonymous gift of $500,000 joins the Ponder Scholarship and Hooks Professorship in supporting students in the School of Education. The gift is inspired by the Hooks Professorship and will create a fund to support community-based STEM research by traditionally underrepresented students in the School of Education.
“One of the greatest challenges we’re facing for the STEM field is the limited representation of historically marginalized groups,” says Dr. Randy Penfield, dean of the School of Education. “Students often learn better from individuals who share similarities in background with them. It makes a barrier to students from these groups to get into the field. That creates a barrier on the number of STEM teachers, professors, and industry leaders from these communities. There’s this cycle we’re trying to disrupt and that’s where these funding opportunities that give us the ability to provide access for students from all backgrounds, including those historically underrepresented and marginalized, become so important.”
These gifts are a few of many that support student teachers in the School of Education. Learn more about gifts to the School of Education and the Light the Way campaign at soe.uncg.edu/giving.
By Vivian Campbell ’20
Photography by Martin W. Kane