When Sharon Barnes 84L learned she had been awarded a Woodruff Fellowship to attend Emory Law, her life changed forever. Her husband had recently passed away, leaving her in a “deep depression.”

To make matters worse, she remembers, “I was in the process of getting a loan for a house because the child murders were happening in the city of Atlanta, and I had these two little kids, a baby and a toddler.”

Barnes worried that the loan company would deny her application since her only income for the next three years of law school would be her Social Security survivor benefits.

“But when the loan company found out that I was awarded a Robert W. Woodruff Fellowship and I would be going to Emory University Law School, then the bank said ‘for sure,’” she recalls, “because they had that much faith and respect in the name Robert W. Woodruff and the name of Emory.

Since then, she has become a leading trial attorney, handling more than 250 jury trials and mentoring other attorneys.

In the spirit of the gift that so changed her life’s trajectory, she also gives back to her Atlanta community by helping those in need: “Robert W. Woodruff gave me my law degree, which I didn’t have to pay for, so I did pro bono work, helping folks who just couldn’t afford an attorney, doing wills and the like for senior citizens. I hold myself out as a professional, not aloft from people, but as a servant of people, to help ease their minds during a critical stage in their lives.”

Since the first class of Woodruff Scholars matriculated at Emory College in fall 1980, more than 2,850 undergraduate and graduate students have received this esteemed recognition of their achievement and potential.

More than 250 of these current and former Woodruff Scholars and Fellows came together in late February 2020 to celebrate “A Community Built for Impact: 40 Years of Woodruff Scholars, Fellows, and Professors.” Their stories reveal the program’s transformational effect—not only on Emory and Atlanta, but on the people they encounter across the country and around the world.

In many ways, this spirit of generosity among Woodruff Scholars and Fellows is borne of the unique nature of the 1979 gift itself—$105 million from the Emily and Ernest Woodruff Fund, which was, at that time, the largest philanthropic gift to higher education in the nation’s history.

The gift was unrestricted, which reflected Mr. Woodruff’s confidence in the leadership of President Laney, who led the university from 1977 to 1993. To determine the best use of such a generous investment, Laney appointed a committee of higher education leaders from across the country.

After much discussion and research, the committee decided Emory should use the gift to support its most valuable asset—students and faculty.

Shinde’s experiences in his first year-and-a-half as a Woodruff Scholar reflect the amazing opportunities the program creates. He was able to play on the varsity men’s tennis team, participate in Emory’s IDEAS interdisciplinary research fellowship, meet Jane Goodall, and traveling with the Emory Tibet Summer Study Abroad where he met the Dalai Lama.

For many Woodruff alumni, the funding transformed their lives, making higher education possible when financial considerations would have otherwise prevented them from realizing their dreams.

“Kids like me don’t become attorneys,” explains Atlanta criminal defense lawyer Molly Parmer 12L. “Growing up in poverty, surrounded by crime, my life was focused on mere survival from day one. I wasn’t destined for prestigious private education and a powerful career, no matter how well I did in school. Life is different on the margins.”

Parmer now fights to defend those very people whom the criminal justice system continues to marginalize, and she credits her success to “the opportunity to attend a top-tier law school on a full scholarship with a stipend every year and being welcomed into a community” of Woodruff scholars who supported her every step of the way. “All I can say is that it’s good to be the exception to the rule.”

Story by Beth Sherouse, PhD. Design by Davis Newell.