The Endowed Scholarship Reception that will take place homecoming weekend gives the students who received the scholarships an opportunity to say thank you to the donor.

The reception will take place at 4 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Show Me Center and is expected to have over 200 attendees.

At the reception, part of the Show Me Center is sectioned off with round tables, which allows the donor to sit with the student who received their scholarship.

"Here both the recipient and the donor get to visit for a half hour," Bill Holland, executive director of the University Foundation said. "The donor gets to know the recipient's dreams, goals, where they are from, stuff about their family. It really just personalizes the relationship between a student and the donor."

Faculty and staff are encouraged to attend the reception since they too play a key role in the educational system.

Dr. Chris McGowan, dean of Southeast's College of Science, Technology and Agriculture attends the reception every year.

"The reception ultimately gives the opportunity to thank the donors, but the donors also are just thrilled to be given the opportunity to meet the students too," McGowan said.

The Southeast Missouri University Foundation focuses on helping students find a way to fund their education. They obtain and manage resources, like the contributions from the donors, to help fund a student's education. The endowed scholarships are funded by donors and are granted for one academic year to the students who best meet the criteria of the donor.

"With keeping close connections with the donors we look at it as them giving a large gift and it's important for students to see what the impact of that gift is," Holland said.