Michelle LaRose, of Haymarket ,Va., and her brother, Scott LaRose, of Delray Beach, Fla., have made a $500,000 gift to the Ever ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ Campaign to establish the Gail H. LaRose Scholarship, which will assist students with financial need in the School of Education.
“My brother and I feel strongly about establishing this scholarship to honor our mother,” Michelle LaRose says. “She wants to give someone the opportunity to get an education who is as dedicated as she is to teaching and to making a difference in the lives of children.”
Gail LaRose, a 1964 ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ graduate and former teacher, is grateful to her children for endowing the scholarship. She says she and her husband, the late Robert E. LaRose ’66, a former ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ trustee, were fortunate to have excellent teachers and believe strongly in preparing young men and women for the classroom.
“We are in such dire need of good teachers, and I think it’s important to help future teachers get their education at ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ without worrying about how they are going to afford it,” LaRose says.
Robert and Gail LaRose have been among ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ’s most generous donors. The LaRose Digital Theatre in the Ernest A. Koury Sr. Business Center is named in recognition of their $1 million gift to the university. Robert LaRose served on ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ’s board of trustees from 1985 to 2006, and as chair from 1997 to 1999. He built successful companies that specialize in software applications and integration services for government and commercial enterprises. At the time of his death in 2010, he served as president, CEO and chairman of Agilex Technologies, Inc.
Gail LaRose says she is proud of her alma mater and calls her ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ education “four of the very best years of my life.”
“ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ is a special and dynamic place,” she says. “Having met my husband at ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ makes it pretty special, too. I know how immensely proud he was of how ºÚÁϲ»´òìÈ was developing. He knew this scholarship was something we were going to do, and he was proud of that.”