{"id":4224,"date":"2025-02-10T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=4224"},"modified":"2025-02-18T15:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T15:06:11","slug":"williams-driven-to-give-by-family-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=4224","title":{"rendered":"Williams driven to give by family, community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SIU Donor Story: Wendell Williams\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b6gQIXXAhg0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>SIU\u2019s vice chancellor for enrollment management witnesses impact firsthand<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Jeff Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Growing up in rural Arkansas, Wendell and Gloria Williams have never forgotten their roots.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe come from families that had zero,\u201d said Wendell Williams, vice chancellor for enrollment management at Southern Illinois University. \u201cOne thing we always asked for was the ability to give. Every place we have gone, we have made a commitment to endow a scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Wendell and Gloria Williams Family Scholarship lends support to Black SIU students as they pursue their education goals.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4225\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4225\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4225\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Williams-Family-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Williams Family\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Williams-Family-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Williams-Family.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4225\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wendell Williams is pictured with his wife, Gloria, and daughters, Britni and Cortni.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWhen we receive a letter back from a student, you have no idea how much that means,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know if that person will eventually be the cure for cancer or if that person is going to solve some of these racial issues we\u2019re facing or be the president of the United States. Our gift is invisible, but the results, one day, are going to always be visible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite humble beginnings, Williams was rich in community and family life. He was the first in his family to graduate from college.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy parents constantly gave to the community. We had a piece of land in front of our house, and they sowed vegetables. Anyone who wanted could come pick from that garden,\u201d he said. \u201cOur community church was so proud of anyone attending college. If you came home on the weekend, the church \u2013 which also didn\u2019t have any money \u2013 would take up a collection and invest in you. We were representing them and doing something that they were not able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After graduating from Arkansas State University, Williams was planning to take courses at Southern in a doctoral program, but he was offered a job to become a vice president at a community college instead. He started working at SIU in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSIU is a wonderful place,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s so great when we tell our incoming students about our hundreds of thousands of living alumni, and they can see them giving back. It shows that they were able to do well after coming to SIU, and they never forget those connections and want to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As vice chancellor, Williams works with students every day and see the impact of donor scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the average student, there\u2019s a gap of about $3,500, and that doesn\u2019t count living expenses or books. That gap is what really needs to be covered, and SIU Foundation scholarships do a great job of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Williams urges people interested in giving to think small and not be intimidated by large dollar amounts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe started by sitting down and saying, \u2018What can we sacrifice without making it hurt on us?\u2019 We settled on $100 a month, so we just started there,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt was stuff we didn\u2019t miss, such as dessert after a meal or one less soda, one less drink. Don\u2019t try to start big. Start and be consistent, and then you see the results of that, and it motivates you to do a little bit more. I wish we could give out more scholarships than we do. Think of the impact that would have. Imagine that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To make a gift, visit siuf.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SIU\u2019s vice chancellor for enrollment management witnesses impact firsthand By Jeff Wilson Growing up in rural Arkansas, Wendell and Gloria Williams have never forgotten their roots. \u201cWe come from families that had zero,\u201d said Wendell Williams, vice chancellor for enrollment management at Southern Illinois University. \u201cOne thing we always asked for was the ability to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=4224\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Williams driven to give by family, community<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donor-stories","category-higher-education","category-siu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4224"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4267,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4224\/revisions\/4267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}