Since 2012, the Gail Baird Foundation has contributed over $5,000,000 supporting more than 200 different organizations in and around the region, including the University of South Florida.
The donations from the Sarasota-based foundation support a mission committed to researching, increasing awareness, and curing ovarian cancer while continuing Gail Baird’s efforts to provide opportunities for aspiring female entrepreneurs and to enrich the lives of seniors and veterans.
To that end, USF is pleased to announce a $25,000 donation from the Gail Baird Foundation to fund the Gail L. Baird Entrepreneurship Scholarship. The award will support five $3,000 scholarships to undergraduate junior and senior female students and one $10,000 scholarship to a graduate student female enrolled in the entrepreneurship program in USF’s Muma College of Business for the 2022-2023 academic year.
“We are very proud to support USF women studying entrepreneurship at the Muma College of Business,” said Eric Baird, president of the Gail Baird Foundation. “My mother, Gail Lynn Baird, possessed an inexhaustible determination and passion for learning and business that she channeled through entrepreneurship in several successful business ventures. At the foundation, we strive to perpetuate her spirit as we offer USF students the tools that they will need to forge their own future endeavors.”
A previous gift from the Gail Baird Foundation, announced in 2016, allowed female graduate and undergraduate students majoring or minoring in entrepreneurship at USF to apply for up to $25,000 in scholarship awards for the 2017-2018 school year. The scholarship was open to full or part-time junior, senior or graduate students on all three USF campuses.
“We are beyond delighted with the continued and generous support from Eric Baird and the Gail Baird Foundation,” said Dirk Libaers, the John and Beverly Grant Endowed Professor of Entrepreneurship and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Muma College of Business. “This scholarship will help USF attract, recruit and train the next generation of female entrepreneurs by unlocking the potential of this mostly untapped pool of talented individuals to drive forward our economy."
To learn more about the Gail Baird Foundation’s mission or inquiries, please reach out to the Gail Baird Foundation.