Dave and Sara Doeren donate $1.25 million to establish new academic support program at NC State

NC State announced this morning that Dave Doeren and his wife, Sara, have made a big donation to the school in order to establish a new academic program:

The new program being launched through the Doeren Family Fund will be called OnePack Empowered and will benefit NC State students who face challenges with executive function skills critical to academic success, such as organization, planning, setting priorities, task completion and decision making. Autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are just two of the diagnoses that could be linked to challenges in this realm, but students with these challenges also might have no formal diagnosis.

The inspiration for OnePack Empowered came from watching their son Jacob, who is on the autism spectrum, successfully navigate his academic work with the support of a similar program at Appalachian State.

The Doerens’ donation will fund the program for five years, and once it’s up and running, it will be able to provide specialized support to up to 50 students at a time. This is something that will definitely change lives for the better.