The Dorothy Lawshe Endowment Fund removes financial barriers to participation in Gifted and Talented Education programs and promotes continuing program development. It sustains a variety of educational opportunities for highly talented and motivated students and guarantees that these special students will have access no matter what their family financial situation is.

Dorothy Lawshe spent nearly 50 years in education, including 25 years nurturing the minds of academically gifted young people. She recognized the need to support these students in their pre-collegiate years so that they might fully develop into actively engaged adults. The educational programs she developed as the founding director of Michigan State University’s Office of Gifted and Talented Education have served thousands of youth and stand as a model for other communities to emulate.

Contributing to the Dorothy Lawshe Endowment expands the educational opportunities available to gifted and talented students and makes sure that those opportunities are open to all, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Dorothy passed away in May of 2019 and was the posthumous recipient of the Michigan Association for Gifted Children’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in October 2019. Former GATE director Jenny McCampbell accepted the award on behalf of Dorothy’s family. Dorothy won MSU’s Crystal Apple Education award and also established the Cooperative Highly Accelerated Mathematics Program (CHAMP) and Math, Science, and Technology (MST@MSU) Program, both of which are still in existence today.

Dorothy will be greatly missed, and it is our hope that past and future GATE participants and families know of her impact within the gifted community and the selflessness with which she served gifted children. Dorothy’s family has asked that donations in her memory be made to the Dorothy Lawshe Endowment in recognition of the impact Dorothy has had on the lives of Michigan children over the past several decades. The generosity of contributions to the Dorothy Lawshe Endowment fund ensures that gifted and talented students continue to enjoy excellent, enhanced, educational opportunities for years to come by funding GATE’s need-based scholarships, which are granted to high-ability students who would otherwise not have access to programming. Please donate to help support GATE and gifted students in Michigan.