Vicki Hawes, owner/president of Cookies by Design and Albemarle Courier Corp., recently established a new biology award for students at Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, VA. The Alice McCaa ’76 Biology Award was presented for the first time at Mary Baldwin’s honors convocation in March to Abigail Foley, a junior from Birmingham, MI.
Hawes, an Mary Baldwin alumna, helped make the Alice McCaa ’76 Biology Award a possibility when a family member donated a monetary gift in her honor to the college. Hawes chose to honor her deceased classmate and close friend Alice McCaa, by establishing an award in McCaa’s honor that will encourage and recognize excellence in the field of biology.
While at Mary Baldwin, McCaa was a biology major and a member of Beta Beta Beta, the National Biological Honor Society. A businesswoman in Nags Head, NC, McCaa died of Hodgkin’s disease in 1989.
Hawes, who was also a biology major at Mary Baldwin, created the endowed award to be given annually to an undergraduate biology major in good academic standing and who excels in the laboratory and research settings.
“I’m a strong proponent of liberal arts education. As biology graduates, Alice and I are proof that a Bachelor of Arts degree can take you anywhere,” said Hawes, referring to their career paths, which did not include the sciences.
In addition to her businesses and philanthropy, Hawes is an active member in the Charlottesville community, serving on the Jefferson-area Exchange Club and as the president of the Board of Directors of Sperry Marine Federal Credit Union.