The University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville and The Jolley Foundation are partnering together to provide scholarships to dedicated students in need through the James E. Jolley Scholarship Endowment, a $1.5 million gift to the school.
The Endowment is granted in memory of one of the Jolley Foundation’s founding family members, Jimmy Jolley, created to tackle issues such as discrimination and poverty in order to help students in the Upstate thrive.
“Our uncle, James E. Jolley, was a caring and humble man. He thought greatly about what a medical school with a community-centered focus could contribute to the Upstate: excellent clinical training in community medicine, greater numbers of physicians making the Upstate their home, and access to quality care for all Upstate women, men, and children,” said James “Duff” Bruce III, Board Chair for the Jolley Foundation. “The James E. Jolley Scholarship Endowment will strive to support young people who love medicine, who value the University of South Carolina School of Medicine at Greenville’s approach to medical training, and who want to make a difference in the lives of others and their community”.
The scholarship endowment provides vital financial assistance to students to enable them to focus more intently on their academic pursuits and less on the question of financial security. The first of the scholarships will be allocated this academic year, with the fund annually supporting two students and offsetting the cost of their tuition and fees. This generous gift will support need-based scholarships for motivated and resilient candidates whose life experiences demonstrate the ability to overcome enormous obstacles including economic adversity, cultural or geographic barriers to success, and/or personal or family illnesses.
“This wonderful family is thoughtful and intentional in directing their philanthropy to positively impact lives and communities; just hearing of this gift brought tears to my eyes and immense joy”, stated Dr. Marjorie Jenkins, Dean of the UofSC School of Medicine Greenville and Chief Academic Officer for Prisma Health-Upstate. “Each student recipient of the James E. Jolley Scholarship will be gifted not only with funding, but also with the freedom to learn and grow into amazing physicians without the fear of a major debt load upon graduation. The Endowment will allow students the opportunity to choose the type of doctors they truly desire to be–based on preference, rather than solely on future earning potential. In essence, each recipient, along with each and every patient they care for during their career, will be greatly impacted by the James E. Jolley Scholarship.”
The Jolley Foundation previously gave a $100,000 scholarship to the School of Medicine Greenville in 2015. According to Tish McCutchen, the Program Officer at the Jolley Foundation, the donation of the initial gift in addition to hearing from the recipients firsthand about the transformative power of scholarship support led the Foundation’s Board to decide that creating the endowment was the best way to commemorate Jimmy Jolley.
The Foundation has worked for four generations to “make Greenville County a place where all residents can thrive”, says McCutchen. “We focus on creating positive social change and are committed to seeing that social, economic, and cultural inequity is dismantled”. The Scholarship will also enable the School of Medicine Greenville to attract the best and the brightest as they fulfill their mission to develop highly skilled and compassionate physicians for a healthier South Carolina.