Endowment funds National Geographic fellowship

SAN MARCOS – The National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., will soon boast more Texas flavor.

With the recent endowment of the $1 million Grosvenor Center Geography Education Fund, graduate students in the geography doctoral program at Texas State University-San Marcos will now have the opportunity to serve fellowships with the prestigious National Geographic Society as Grosvenor Scholars.

The National Geographic Society will provide $500,000 to match the Texas State Development Foundation’s $500,000 pledge to create the $1 million endowment. The Development Foundation’s portion of the match came from the Roy and Joann Cole Mitte Foundation, the Dodge Jones Foundation, W. S. Benson and Company, Inc., Dr. Richard G. Boehm and Dr. Denise Blanchard-Boehm, Mr. and Mrs. Bob Cooper and other individual donors.

“This is a huge step for Texas State’s nationally recognized Geography Department,” said Carroll Wiley, executive director or the Texas State Development Foundation. “It’s very prestigious when you get an opportunity to serve a fellowship with National Geographic, but it’s especially so in regards to geography.”

The Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education was founded to encourage research and provide leadership in the movement to increase the quality of geographic education. The center’s name honors the vast contributions that Gilbert Grosvenor and the National Geographic Society have made in advancing the national reform movement in geography.