The Libraries’ Donors & Scholars event connects donors to student scholarship recipients

The NC State University Libraries student scholarship awardees and scholarship donors gathered in the Hunt Library’s Duke Energy Hall for the third annual Donors & Scholars reception on March 6.

Each year, the Libraries awards a number of partial scholarships to its outstanding Libraries student workers as part of an expanding effort to support their success and to make their educational journey more affordable. Since 2018, the Libraries has awarded 53 students a total of 86 scholarships of varying amounts totaling $315,000. For this academic year 2024–25, philanthropic support for the Libraries Student Scholarship Fund has allowed the Libraries to support 22 talented student workers with scholarships worth $140,000 in total.

"This was our third year doing Donors & Scholars, and I was blown away by the quality of our speakers,” says Jeremy Allen, Executive Director of Philanthropy, Libraries and Parent Giving. “It is also wonderful to see such strong participation in the event by our growing list of student scholarship recipients. This event has a very special way of driving home the direct impact of scholarship support from the Libraries, and connecting the dots between the donors behind the scholarships and the student recipients."

The evening began with a dinner and opening remarks by Senior Vice Provost and Director of Libraries Greg Raschke.

“Libraries typically haven’t provided scholarships the way colleges and departments have,” Raschke said. “Our goal, over the past six years, has been to change that, and for the Libraries to be leaders in the library world by creating a robust scholarship program available to our over 200 student workers.”
 

“The financial burden of higher education is very real in the lives of our students. Because of this, the Libraries wanted to do more than just hire students. We wanted to make a significant impact on the lives of our student workers by offering need-based scholarships that help mitigate the ever-rising costs of higher education, to level the playing field and empower them to focus on their studies and emerge from undergrad with as little debt as possible.”

Raschke then introduced Head of Access Services Adebola Fabiku, who has published work on the topic of student employment in libraries.

Fabiku noted that she was once a student worker in the library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As an undergraduate, she started to realize the financial burden that school was placing on her family.

“After my stepfather became disabled and later passed away, I overheard a conversation between my parents about my tuition,” Fabiku shared. “My mom was struggling with medical bills, and my dad immediately offered to cover more costs to help alleviate her stress. I had scholarships, but they didn’t cover nearly enough. That was when I understood the sacrifices they were making for me.”

Fabiku noted that the Access Services department has around 70 student workers—covering areas such as the Ask Us desks at the Hill and Hunt Libraries, the bookBot, InterLibrary Loan, and the Bookstacks—and spoke to their value not just to the operation of the Libraries but to all Libraries users across campus. “We conduct regular one-on-one check-ins and safety training because we genuinely care about their wellbeing. We work alongside our students—never treating any task as ‘beneath us’ or ‘just student work.’ We recognize that every role is vital to our organization.”

“A scholarship like the one our students are receiving today would have meant the world to my parents and me during my college years,” she concluded, speaking directly to the donors in the room. “It would have alleviated not just financial burden but also the guilt I felt knowing my parents were sacrificing for me while facing their own life challenges.”

“That's exactly what I see in our scholarship recipients today. The relief in their eyes when they say, ‘Now my parents can afford to send my little brother to college’ or ‘Now I can focus on school without constant financial worry.’ And for some of our students, your scholarship is literally paying their tuition for the next semester.”

Scholarship recipient Daniel Briceno then spoke about that very relief that the Libraries—and its donors’ support—has given him as he pursues a Computer Science degree.

Growing up in Shelby NC, Briceno was used to the constantly juggling life of a student—managing household chores, caring for siblings, participating in weight-training, soccer, track, band, and robotics, and working evening shifts at a grocery store. “I constantly heard I was doing too much,” he said. “Yet beneath that busy schedule was a first-generation college student desperately trying to build a future while balancing the demands of the present.”  

At the Libraries, Briceno works in the VR Studio and Digital Media Lab. He enjoys introducing students to immersive technologies like VR experiences, 3D modeling, game development tools, video editing, music production, and digital storytelling. It’s high-impact work—he’s teaching faculty to teach their students. “Whether it’s helping someone explore a virtual world for the first time or troubleshooting hardware issues on the fly, every day brings a new challenge,” he said. “It’s always exciting to see faculty explore these resources, then return weeks later with a class, to integrate emerging technologies into their teaching and research.”

The financial relief of a scholarship made that familiar juggling easier for Briceno—and it made him feel that his initiative was appreciated, as well.

“Receiving a scholarship was like lifting a boulder off my shoulders—but not just any boulder,” he said. “It was the weight of tuition, textbooks, rent, and all the countless expenses that come with being a college student. It was the stress of balancing work and academics. My scholarship didn’t just ease a financial burden—it gave me security, motivation, and peace of mind. It meant I could focus more on my studies and research instead of stressing over my next paycheck. It gave me the freedom to take on opportunities that might have otherwise felt out of reach. It allowed me to fully engage in my work at the Libraries. More than anything, it was a reminder that someone believed in me and my potential, and that’s something I’ll always be grateful for.” 

The evening concluded with remarks from new Friends of the Libraries board member Karlie Marlowe who, with her husband Ben, supported a scholarship through a donation to the Libraries. They are both NC State alumni—she received her Communications degree in Public Relations in 2008, and he received his degree in Agricultural Business in 2009. She cherished studying in the Hill Library as a student and recounted a story of her father, a fellow alum, liberating books through an upper-story window—so she had an appreciation of the Libraries from a student’s point of view.

But it wasn’t until her neighbors—Libraries scholarship donors Mark Bailey and Steve Edgerton—talked with Karlie and Ben about the great connection they had made with Libraries student staff members and their scholarship recipient, that she started thinking about paying that appreciation forward.

“Out of that conversation, we toured the Hill Library for the first time in about fifteen years and got to know the awesome members of the Libraries’ staff. We realized it was so much more than the late-night study spot we remembered from our undergrad years,” Kylie said. “I loved the examples of communications students learning hard, transferable skills in areas like the Makerspace and the Digital Media Lab, which will make them more competitive in the job market.”

Kylie and Ben were also impressed with the opportunities for students to work at the Libraries and by the scholarship opportunities that the Libraries and its donors have worked to build and expand. And now they are proud that the Marlowe Family Libraries Scholarship is a part of that support.

“If you are here tonight and not yet a donor, I hope you will consider putting your dollars toward this great work,” she concluded. “NC State has truly pioneered this idea of both empowering students as Libraries colleagues and as Libraries scholarship recipients, setting an example for the entire country. It’s Think and Do at its finest.”