King Foundation Supports Students In Crisis—Provides Valuable Virtual Learning Program

The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation has gifted $40,000 to help Rowan University students as they navigate the uncertainty surrounding their education and COVID-19.

In April, the pandemic rapidly changed the outlook of an in-person college experience, inspiring the King Family Foundation to send a proactive, unsolicited $5,000 gift supporting the Rowan University Student Emergency Fund.

Established in 2016, the fund was originally created to aid students facing unexpected hardships with the potential to derail their progress in earning a degree. However, since the onset of COVID-19, all contributions to the Rowan Student Emergency Fund are now directed toward students who are facing unforeseen difficulties as a byproduct of protective measures against the coronavirus, including housing, transportation, basic needs and access to required technology for remote learning.

The Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation is a New Jersey nonprofit organization with a commitment to educational excellence and professional development. In addition to their $5,000 donation, the Foundation generously gifted a $40,000 grant to support the overwhelming need for online tutoring services at Rowan University.

Rowan’s in-house tutoring program services over 5,000 students a year, though with the impact of COVID-19 complicating students’ access to in-person assistance, additional tutoring services became a number one priority heading into the fall semester.

“Student support has been one of the core charitable missions of the Foundation,” said Board of Trustees President and Chair, Eugene V. Kokot. “We try to focus on how our charitable friends can best benefit from our support. In the current challenging education environment, it means a great deal to our Board of Trustees to be able to help meet a specific and targeted need of Rowan students through the Smarthinking program.”

The King Family Foundation’s grant will fund a program called “Smarthinking” through Pearson to provide Rowan students with live, personalized, online tutoring 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Smarthinking will enhance the University’s ability to help students achieve their educational goals while also better preparing them for graduation as the community adapts to virtual learning. The Foundation also generously gave an additional $50,000 at the start of the fall semester to directly support COVID-19 relief for students.

“The Foundation has a long history with Rowan,” concluded Kokot. “Our late founder, Ms Diana King, who received an honorary degree, was a life-long New Jersey resident committed to education. Realizing that the drastic circumstances of the pandemic created special needs for off-campus learning, we wanted to make a meaningful contribution to Rowan’s university-wide efforts to meet these needs.”