Perry Endowment gives students opportunity to learn about lemurs

Cynthia Perry Garland established an endowment through a planned gift to support enrichment experiences for students in the Gateway to College and Adult High School/High School Equivalency programs. 

Garland, a 1994 alumna of Durham Tech, credits the examples of her parents and brother as her inspiration to give back. When she was 5 years old, Garland watched as her mother went back to get her high school diploma. Garland’s father drove his wife to and from school every day and ensured Garland and her brother, Andrew, had their needs met. 

A champion of lifelong learning, Garland named the endowment The Perry Family Memorial Endowment for Student Enrichment.

August, a group of students visited the Duke Lemur Center, thanks to the Perry Endowment. Stésha Little, director of the Gateway to College programs, believes that “enriching extracurricular experiences for this population of students are particularly important because it provides students who made the hard decision to leave high school the first time with educational experiences that highlight some of the incredible arts, science and culture right in our own back yard.” 

These students, and others, may have experienced one or more barriers to participating in an extracurricular activity such as cost; transportation; accessibility; and lack of awareness, encouragement or cultural familiarity. As Durham Tech lives out its commitment to educating and supporting the whole student, these kinds of activities can open new doors and make lasting impressions. They also enhance a shared experience that bonds them together, which leads to greater community connections on campus and beyond.