A group of National Champion field hockey alumnae came together with Ken and Cheryl Williams to give funds to name the team room at Karen Shelton Stadium.

Led by Joy Durling and Moira McFadden Sullivan, these Tar Heels funded the newly named “Champions Club” room in the team’s facility – a room that serves as a gathering place for current and former student-athletes and supporters of the program.

“At Carolina, we learned what it took to be a champion,” says Erin Cox O’Leary, a field hockey alumna. “The Champions Club represents those lessons – to confidently share the field with friendship, with gratitude, and with resilience.”

FORevHER Tar Heels provides valuable funding to Carolina’s women’s sport programs in a variety of ways.

One component of the initiative is the FORevHER Tar Heels scholarship, awarded annually to a current female student-athlete. For Jill Shippee, an All-America track & field student-athlete and the 2021-22 recipient of the scholarship, the award is greatly appreciated.

“I know there are a lot of student-athletes who wouldn’t be in the position we are now without a scholarship,” says Shippee. “It’s a true honor to be named a FORevHER Tar Heels scholar. It has been amazing to be a part of the athletic legacy of women student-athletes at Carolina, and helping establish the culture for future student-athletes. I’m excited to see that through during my last year.

At Carolina, an opportunity often starts with a scholarship and is enhanced by valuable support once student-athletes are in Chapel Hill.

Scholarship endowment gifts provide a legacy of support in perpetuity, while cash gifts allow our coaches to improve the student-athlete experience immediately. For women’s lacrosse alumna Nancy Hahn Heaton, ensuring both happen was accomplished with a combination gift of an estate bequest and a cash gift.

“I find that my time at Carolina continues to play a large part in my life,” says Heaton. “I thought it was important to make sure that that experience remains available to future potential Tar Heels, and that our coaches have what they need to make that experience as impactful as mine.”

Coaches and student-athletes know the importance of being agile and able to adjust at a moment’s notice – whether it’s during a game or when running a sports program at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics.

Carolina coaches find great value in gifts made directly in support of a program through a “friends” account. Carolina legend Charlotte Smith wants the women’s basketball program to have that agility – and does so in a creative way.

“As a former student-athlete at Carolina and a coach, I know that you sometimes need some help on the fly,” says Smith. “For that reason, I give $23 a month to the ‘Friends of Carolina Women’s Basketball’ fund – matching up with my jersey number while I played. It’s important to me that Carolina Women’s Basketball has what it needs to succeed.”