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when Michele and Eric Goodwin established Succeed With Ease, a fund helping WCU students fulfill unexpected needs, they thought of it as a way of being neighborly. The Goodwins live two blocks from the University and wanted to support students like the ones they saw walking past their home every day.

“It’s our community,” Michele says. “You just kind of feel a responsibility to help the people in your backyard.”

The Goodwins had supported a fund to assist students with food insecurity at the university where their daughter earned her bachelor’s degree. The idea of doing something similar for WCU students appealed to them. They conferred with Jen Bacon, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, to see what was needed and came up with the idea for Succeed with Ease.

Succeed with Ease funds a supply area in Main Hall for students in the college. The Goodwins’ goal in establishing the fund is to provide materials to which some students may not otherwise have access and, in doing so, to allow these students to pursue fully their educational aspirations and dreams at WCU.

“You just kind of feel a responsibility to help the people in your backyard.”

Students have access to a variety of supplies. Art students have frequently benefited because art supplies can be expensive. They have been able to get items like canvases, Bristol boards, pens, tape measures, paintbrushes, palette knives, and notebooks. In some cases, the funding has covered a special one-time purchase, such as purchasing a short-term Adobe license for a student project. Students have received help buying textbooks and in spring 2024, the fund will supply clay for students studying ceramics. The banners decorating Main Hall’s façade were designed by a student who received Succeed with Ease funding for a laptop.

“This type of funding is extremely valuable for students because it creates a path forward when students have unexpected expenses associated with their courses,” Bacon says. “We want them to have what they need to walk into their classrooms with confidence, never having to worry that a financial challenge will keep them from being able to do the work of their class.”

As parents whose daughter, Anna, and son, Gray, recently graduated from college, the Goodwins say they understand the many costs associated with higher education. “Having had two kids go to school, you know that even if tuition is taken care of, even if meal plans are taken care of, the books and everything else add up,” Michele says.

The Goodwins grew up and attended college in North Carolina, where they lived until Eric accepted a job in Pennsylvania five years ago with Universal Health Services, which manages hospitals and other health-care facilities across the country. In his role as chief information officer, Eric has had opportunities to hire WCU students for interns and recruit graduates for jobs. The Goodwins consider Pennsylvania home, although Michele goes back to North Carolina frequently to help oversee her family’s business, Loping Crow Distillery. Located in Albemarle, N.C., it is a small batch distillery where her 82-year-old father is the master distiller. Michele coordinates distillery events featuring entertainment and food trucks.

In Pennsylvania, the Goodwins enjoy the vibrancy that comes with living in a college town. They appreciate the many restaurants and businesses that exist because of WCU’s proximity and enjoy campus cultural events and concerts. There’s still one thing at the University they are looking forward to seeing – and hearing.

“We have not made it to a football game yet. I've heard the band is incredible. So that’s on our list of things to do,” Michele says.