STUDENT LIFE
As Student Life concludes its portion of The Rising Tide 2.0 Capital Campaign, we are deeply grateful for the generosity of alumni, parents, faculty, staff and friends who have invested in the future of our students. Your support is transforming the student experience at the Capstone by expanding access to scholarships, strengthening programs that promote health and well-being, enhancing opportunities for leadership development and engaged learning, and ensuring students have the resources they need to thrive.
These investments ease financial burdens, foster belonging and resilience, and empower students to focus on academic achievement and personal growth. The impact of your giving will be felt far beyond a student's time on campus, shaping graduates who are prepared to lead, serve and contribute to their communities.
Together, we are creating a stronger, more supportive Alabama experience and changing lives for generations to come.
LETTER FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT
The Rising Tide 2.0 Capital Campaign has been a remarkable demonstration of what’s possible when our community comes together to help support our students. Through the generosity of alumni, parents, faculty, staff and friends, Student Life has received investments that will strengthen the student experience for generations to come.
These gifts have expanded scholarship opportunities, enhanced programs that support student well-being, and created new opportunities for leadership development, engaged learning and personal growth. More importantly, they have helped ensure that students have the resources, encouragement and support they need to thrive during their time at the Capstone.
The impact of this generosity extends far beyond a student's years on campus. Every investment made through this campaign contributes to the success of future graduates who will lead in their professions, serve their communities and carry the values of The University of Alabama wherever they go.
We are grateful to our donors for the lasting difference your contributions bring to the lives of our students. Your belief in their potential and your commitment to their success have strengthened opportunities and helped shape a brighter future for those who call the Capstone home.
Roll Tide,
Steven Hood, EdD
Vice President for Student Life
THE MOMENTUM WE BUILT
$31.6M
TOTAL RAISED
39
NEW ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIPS
$14M
PROGRAM SUPPORT
THE IMPACT OF RISING TOGETHER
Pi Beta Phi Gift Establishes CSL Workroom for Al’s Pals
A 2026 gift to Al’s Pals from the Alabama Beta Chapter of Pi Beta Phi reflects a shared commitment to service, student growth and community impact.
The contribution established the Center for Service and Leadership (CSL) Workroom, recognized with a plaque reading, “The CSL Workroom, made possible by the Alabama Chapter of Pi Beta Phi.”
The named space represents more than a physical location. It represents an ongoing commitment to service and to the students who continue that work, as well as a shared vision of supporting initiatives that connect students with meaningful opportunities to serve.
The decision to support Al’s Pals grew from Pi Beta Phi’s national philanthropy, Read > Lead > Achieve, which promotes literacy as a foundation for lifelong opportunity and impact. For chapter leaders, the program was a natural fit because many members are already involved in its work.
“As we considered how our chapter could make a lifelong impact through this mission, we chose Al’s Pals, a program many of our members already work closely with,” said Hillary Foster, director of service and philanthropy for Pi Beta Phi. “Supporting it through an endowed fund allows us not only to strengthen the program today but to continue that support for years to come, which makes it especially meaningful to our chapter.”
The chapter’s total commitment is $75,000, including $65,000 designated to name the CSL Workroom and establish a general endowment supporting Al’s Pals. This endowment is designed to provide long-term support for the program’s mentoring mission and is structured to sustain its impact over time.
An additional $10,000 will be directed to an existing Al’s Pals support fund, allowing the chapter to begin making an immediate difference while the endowment is finalized and begins generating future support.
Pi Beta Phi’s gift to the Center for Service and Leadership will support Al’s Pals.
Pi Beta Phi’s gift to the Center for Service and Leadership will support Al’s Pals.
For members, this approach shows a commitment to making an impact today while also supporting the program for years to come.
“Through the endowed fund, our chapter will be able to support Al’s Pals far beyond a member’s time at the University, allowing our efforts to extend into the future,” Foster said.
Support for programs like Al’s Pals contributes to both community impact and student development. Experiences centered on service help students build leadership skills, empathy and a broader understanding of their role in their communities.
“We are grateful for the generosity of Pi Beta Phi and look forward to seeing the continued impact of their philanthropy born out in a ripple effect through the community engagement from our students involved in Al’s Pals and in the lives of the children they serve,” said Sadaris Williams, director of CSL.
A Legacy That Lives On: Honoring Kareem Badawi at the Capstone
Kareem Badawi may have only been at The University of Alabama for one semester, but his legacy at the Capstone will last forever. Kareem was one of the victims who lost their lives in the 2025 New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans. His loved ones describe him as a constant, positive light in their lives.
“Kareem was my brother’s best friend. Every time I went home from college, he was at my house,” said Mary Scott Thom, a UA graduate. “Whenever my parents would come for Parents Weekend, [my brother] would bring his friends Ethan and Kareem with him. They both started to love campus and decided to come to college here.”
Mary Scott says seeing Kareem on campus was special. He was always excited to be at UA and eager to make a difference. He jumped right into campus life by joining Sigma Chi and diving into his engineering courses.
“He loved engineering,” Mary Scott said. “He was so passionate about wanting to be an engineer.”
After Kareem’s death, his high school, Episcopal School of Baton Rouge, began working on ways to honor his memory. When Mary Scott heard about these efforts, she felt called to make sure UA remembered him as well.
Family and friends of the late Kareem Badawi gather to honor his memory through the creation of an endowed scholarship in his name.
Family and friends of the late Kareem Badawi gather to honor his memory through the creation of an endowed scholarship in his name.
“He had such an impact at Episcopal, and he was never going to be forgotten there by anybody,” she said. “He was at UA for such a short time. He deserved to be here for four years. So, I started thinking about what I could do to keep his name alive here so people could always remember him.”
Mary Scott came up with the idea of establishing an endowed scholarship fund in Kareem’s name. Working with the scholarship and development offices, she learned she would need to raise $25,000 to fully endow the fund. She began thinking outside the box, emailing every president of the sororities and fraternities on campus, reaching out to the Student Government Association, contacting family members and connecting with Kareem’s Sigma Chi brothers.
Support quickly began pouring in. Matching donors from Sigma Chi helped the fund meet its goal faster than anticipated.
“This is really special for his family because they know how excited he was to come here,” she said. “His name will always be remembered no matter what. Those who donated to the scholarship learned more about him and were educated about who he was. His name is now going to be known by thousands of people, and that’s really special.”
On Feb. 9, 2026, a special luncheon honored Kareem and his family and introduced the scholarship. Mary Scott, her parents and brother, Kareem’s father, uncle and brother, along with his friend Ethan and members of Sigma Chi, attended the event alongside staff from the Division of Student Life.
“It was a moment where we were all able to come together,” Mary Scott said. “It was sad, but Dr. (Steven) Hood, the vice president for Student Life, knew all the right things to say, telling Kareem’s family how much of an impact this scholarship is going to have. We even talked about the sports Kareem played in high school. It allowed us to celebrate him, even during a difficult time.”
After the luncheon, the group visited the Crimson Promenade to see Kareem’s brick, another powerful reminder of his legacy on campus. Members of Sigma Chi later took Kareem’s family to the chapter house, giving them the chance to meet his friends and see the life he had started building at the Capstone.
“It was a bittersweet moment to be able to see the community that he did have here and that cared about him. Even though it was his first semester, they truly knew and loved him during that time,” she said.
Mary Scott says the experience has been deeply meaningful. The University opened so many doors for her, so creating this scholarship is her way of giving back to the institution that shaped her while honoring a lifelong family friend she knows would have made a difference at UA as well.
“Alabama has been such a special place for me. I really loved being here. It’s more than where I went to college. It is where I was able to create this scholarship and where Kareem’s name will live forever,” she said.
Investing in Well-Being: The O’Neill Family’s Lasting Impact
When Patty and Kevin O’Neill walked into the active construction site of the Student Well-Being Hub for the first time, they weren’t just touring a developing campus space – they were stepping into a vision they had already come to believe in deeply. As parents of a then UA freshman and long-time advocates for college students across the country, the O’Neills understood immediately why this project mattered.
Their family’s gift to name the executive director’s office in the Counseling Center is rooted in a lifetime spent watching how college experiences shape students and families. Patty, who has dedicated more than three decades to higher education, has seen firsthand how transformative support services can be. Kevin, a D.C. lobbyist who represents universities as well as fraternities and sororities, sees on a national scale what today’s students are facing: pressures that didn’t exist, or at least weren’t acknowledged, in past generations.
“Students today just have more emotional things to deal with than prior generations,” Kevin O’Neill said. “Just getting in [to college] is a much more pressure-cooked process than it was for older folks, and with the stresses from social media and comparison – I think there’s more anxiety, more stress for the average college student.”
He lamented the suicide rates among today’s young people and the tragedies related to mental health challenges in college students, placing hope in the resources provided by the Counseling Center.
“A place like this can solve a lot of problems before they become big problems,” he said.
As their daughter Kate begins her own journey at Alabama, the O’Neills were eager to invest in a project that not only supports her, but thousands of students she’ll never meet.
What stood out most to Patty about the Student Well-Being Hub was its thoughtfulness in bringing so many student-facing wellness units together in one facility. The Student Well-Being Hub will house UA’s Counseling Center, Camellia Center, Collegiate Recovery and Intervention Services, Health Promotion & Wellness, Dean of Students and Student Care & Well-Being.
“It’s multifaceted, and that speaks volumes,” Patty O’Neill said. “In an environment of higher education finance where many universities are most interested in the quickest way to the end, putting everything under one roof wasn’t the quickest way, but it was the most intentional one.”
When Vice President for Student Life Steven Hood spoke with them about the most meaningful ways to support UA students, the Counseling Center rose to the top. Its executive director, Dr. Greg Vander Wal, doesn’t just oversee operations, but he also continues to see a few clients himself, which added deep meaning for the O’Neills.
“It represents the health of the whole operation,” Patty said, explaining that a leader who keeps a practical understanding not just of what students are facing, but what his staff are experiencing in providing therapy, adds a strategic and informed approach to active leadership.
For Kevin, the Student Well-Being Hub reinforces an important cultural shift.
“This building takes something often kept in the shadows and gives it a home and says it’s okay to talk about what you’re going through,” Kevin O’Neill said. “The sooner you learn that the way to tackle problems is to talk them through and get them out and not repress them, that’s going to lead to healthier, better lives, better relationships, better satisfaction with everything.”
The O’Neills’ gift reflects a belief that student success goes far beyond academics. Safety-net services must be strong, visible and accessible.
“One of the reasons we’re here is because Kate thought this was the best well-rounded student experience and a really good communications school,” Kevin O’Neill said. “So, strong student life and great opportunities to lead. But you can’t be the premier student experience if you don’t have this [wellness] facet at an A-level.”
The O’Neills hope that when students walk into the Counseling Center, maybe anxious, overwhelmed or unsure, that they immediately feel “supportive arms around them.” That sense of belonging and safety, they believe, can change the trajectory of a young person’s life.
And, ultimately, Patty added, the greatest measure of impact would be seeing fewer students reaching the point of crisis – “reverse metrics” as she calls them.
“If their time here helps set them on a path of wellness and success, that’s a win,” she said.
Their family’s philanthropy is anchored in connection – to the University, to the staff leading this work and to the students who will one day sit across from a counselor in the office that bears their name. It is a lasting commitment to ensure every UA student not only thrives academically, but feels supported, understood and never alone.
If you would like to partner with the Division of Student Life and invest in student wellness through the Student Well-Being Hub, there are many opportunities to do so. Please review the Student Well-Being Hub website to review endowed naming opportunities and accessible donor wall giving levels, which both offer meaningful ways to contribute to student wellness at UA.
The O’Neill family was impressed by the intentionality behind housing multiple student-facing wellness units in the Student Well-Being Hub.
The O’Neill family was impressed by the intentionality behind housing multiple student-facing wellness units in the Student Well-Being Hub.
Steven Hood, Vice President for Student Life at UA, discusses the construction of UA’s Student Health and Well-being Hub.
Steven Hood, Vice President for Student Life at UA, discusses the construction of UA’s Student Health and Well-being Hub.