![\"Professor](\"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/06\/IMG_7544-300x225.jpg\")
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Gi<\/span>ving Joy Day<\/span> is an annual fundraiser that \u2014 along with its other worthy goals \u2014 aims to encourage a joyful approach to building financial support for Eagle students. This year\u2019s event, held on Eastern\u2019s 143rd birthday, was its most successful ever, with donor\u2019s committing more than $900,000 by day\u2019s end.<\/span><\/p>\n Among the more notable contributions was that of EWU\u2019s own Bill Youngs, a long-serving professor of history with a keen scholarly and personal interest in our nation\u2019s public lands.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Youngs\u2019 2025 Giving Joy Day gift provided funding to establish the \u201cYoungs Endowment for National Park Studies,\u201d a program that will provide resources to students seeking to experience both work and study in these treasured natural landscapes. <\/span><\/p>\n Though the creation of the endowment was a closely guarded secret, the big Giving Joy Day reveal didn\u2019t surprise Youngs\u2019 friends and former students. Not only is Youngs\u2019 philanthropic bent well established, his parks-related scholarship is respected across the nation. What\u2019s more, in recent years he has become well known for an online history course that is often taught from inside the boundaries of the very parks he\u2019s highlighting.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI care about the National Parks because they are beautiful in their own right and because their founding is the result of some of the best instincts in American public life,\u201d Youngs says. \u201cIt may sound corny, but when I think of the parks, I think of the reverential tone of America the Beautiful \u2014\u00a0 <\/span>of \u2019crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.\u2019 \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The endowment will take Youngs\u2019 passion for national parks and experiential learning a step further, says Shari McMahan, EWU\u2019s president, opening doors for students of all backgrounds to gain knowledge and build careers \u2014 all while helping care for this precious public resource.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDr. Youngs has spent his entire career investing in our students, and this endowment is an incredible extension of that commitment,\u201d McMahan adds. \u201cThanks to his generosity, more students will have the chance to learn by doing, whether in our national parks or other real-world settings. We\u2019re so grateful for all he has done, and continues to do, for EWU.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A gift opens doors for students aiming to study \u2018America\u2019s best idea.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":86168,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-86167","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","stories_categories-giving","stories_tags-spring-summer-2025"],"acf":{"subheading":"","featured_image_format":"cover","display_byline":false,"display_featured_image":false,"display_date_published":false,"featured_video":"","Links":false,"Resources":false,"page_override_title":"","page_hide_sidebar":false,"page_enable_page_nav":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/86167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/86167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86375,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/86167\/revisions\/86375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}