WKU announces $5 million gift for Gatton Academy
Published 6:00 am Monday, May 12, 2025
Bill Gatton Foundation trustee Danny Dunn speaks at a ceremony announcing a $5.25 million gift from the Bill Gatton Foundation to the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science to enhance intensive research opportunities and needs-based scholarships for Gatton Academy students in order to prepare them for STEM careers within the state and to enhance the Bridge to Independence Scholarship Fund to benefit LifeWorks participants outside the Gatton Academy on Saturday, May 10, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Gatton Academy graduation seniors gather outside the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science on Saturday, May 10, 2025, for a ceremony to announce a $5.25 million gift from the Bill Gatton Foundation to the Gatton Academy to enhance intensive research opportunities and needs-based scholarships for Gatton Academy students in order to prepare them for STEM careers within the state and to enhance the Bridge to Independence Scholarship Fund to benefit LifeWorks participants. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Western Kentucky University President Timothy Caboni announces a $5.25 million gift from the Bill Gatton Foundation to enhance intensive research opportunities and needs-based scholarships for Gatton Academy students in order to prepare them for STEM careers within the state and to enhance the Bridge to Independence Scholarship Fund to benefit LifeWorks participants during a ceremony outside the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science on Saturday, May 10, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Gatton Academy Director Lynette Breedlove speaks at a ceremony announcing a $5.25 million gift from the Bill Gatton Foundation to enhance intensive research opportunities and needs-based scholarships for Gatton Academy students in order to prepare them for STEM careers within the state and to enhance the Bridge to Independence Scholarship Fund to benefit LifeWorks participants outside the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science on Saturday, May 10, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Bill Gatton Foundation trustee Danny Dunn speaks at a ceremony announcing a $5.25 million gift from the Bill Gatton Foundation to the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science to enhance intensive research opportunities and needs-based scholarships for Gatton Academy students in order to prepare them for STEM careers within the state and to enhance the Bridge to Independence Scholarship Fund to benefit LifeWorks participants outside the Gatton Academy on Saturday, May 10, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Gatton Academy graduation senior Jaime Mendez-Cano speaks at a ceremony announcing a $5.25 million gift from the Bill Gatton Foundation to enhance intensive research opportunities and needs-based scholarships for Gatton Academy students in order to prepare them for STEM careers within the state and to enhance the Bridge to Independence Scholarship Fund to benefit LifeWorks participants outside the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science on Saturday, May 10, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Gatton Academy graduation senior Ava Blackledge speaks at a ceremony announcing a $5.25 million gift from the Bill Gatton Foundation to enhance intensive research opportunities and needs-based scholarships for Gatton Academy students in order to prepare them for STEM careers within the state and to enhance the Bridge to Independence Scholarship Fund to benefit LifeWorks participants outside the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science on Saturday, May 10, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Gatton Academy Executive Director Julia Link Roberts speaks at a ceremony announcing a $5.25 million gift from the Bill Gatton Foundation to enhance intensive research opportunities and needs-based scholarships for Gatton Academy students in order to prepare them for STEM careers within the state and to enhance the Bridge to Independence Scholarship Fund to benefit LifeWorks participants outside the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science on Saturday, May 10, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Gatton Academy graduation seniors listen as a $5.25 million gift is announced from the Bill Gatton Foundation to the Gatton Academy to enhance intensive research opportunities and needs-based scholarships for Gatton Academy students in order to prepare them for STEM careers within the state and to enhance the Bridge to Independence Scholarship Fund to benefit LifeWorks participants during a ceremony outside the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science on Saturday, May 10, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Western Kentucky University President Timothy Caboni announces a $5.25 million gift from the Bill Gatton Foundation to enhance intensive research opportunities and needs-based scholarships for Gatton Academy students in order to prepare them for STEM careers within the state and to enhance the Bridge to Independence Scholarship Fund to benefit LifeWorks participants during a ceremony outside the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science on Saturday, May 10, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ
david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com
Gatton Academy at Western Kentucky University, the two-year STEM program serving gifted and talented high school juniors and seniors, expects to substantially increase opportunities through a $5 million gift announced Saturday.
The donation, from the Bill Gatton Foundation, will function as an endowment, where WKU will annually spend about 4%, or some $200,000, toward supporting students, WKU President Tim Caboni said. This will enable at least 22 students to acquire research opportunities over future summers beginning next year – double the current number, Gatton Academy Executive Director Julia Roberts said; it’ll also support students who need funds to study abroad as well as other opportunities, Caboni said.
“Our students and our alum tell us that their research and study abroad experiences are instrumental in their choosing to pursue STEM and their career decisions in the future,” Gatton Academy Director Lynette Breedlove said at the announcement, which was attended by academy graduates outside the building. “We know from our alumni reports that Gatton is working, and we are contributing to the STEM workforce pipeline through the experiences that we offer. And that endowment that Mr. Gatton made possible for our students to take advantage of, and research, is a big part of that success that we’ve had.”
An additional donation, of $250,000, will go toward a scholarship fund at LifeWorks for Autism, a nonprofit beside the campus that prepares autistic young adults for transitioning to employment and independent living.
The donation is the second-largest gift in the Gatton Academy’s history, following that which funded the building’s renovation and expansion of Florence Schneider Hall. The foundation has provided WKU more than $24.6 million in gifts, according to Caboni.
For Gatton Academy graduate Ava Blackledge, the academy’s research internship grant funded eight weeks of research on viral protein interactions with distinguished WKU professor Rodney King and the biology department. It covered summer housing and her meal plan, and a $500 grant funded DNA sequencing for her samples.
“It was a very formative experience, one that gave me a true glimpse into the life of a full-time scientific researcher,” Blackledge said. “I wouldn’t have had an opportunity like this without (the grant). I came in passionate about molecular biology but unsure of career options, and I left certain I wanted to dedicate my life to biological research.”
Speakers expressed gratitude toward the foundation, which was established by the late philanthropist and businessman Carol Martin “Bill” Gatton, who died in 2022.
“(The academy) really transforms (students’) educational careers – but also their lives,” Caboni said. “They discover for the first time what it means to be a researcher, many of them, and it puts them on a path to do really amazing things in their career.”
Roberts called the gift unbelievable.
“It is a wonderful way to carry forward the work of the Gatton Academy students forever,” she said.
