New College Foundation announces expanded mission and reorganizes as Martinsville-Henry County Academic Foundation

 MARTINSVILLE, Va., Feb. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The New College Foundation is proud to announce that it has reorganized as the Martinsville-Henry County Academic Foundation ("MHC Academic Foundation"), with the intent to provide expanded academic opportunities for students in the Martinsville-Henry County region.

The New College Foundation ("NCF") was created in 2006 to provide financial and administrative support to the New College Institute ("NCI"), with the shared goal of offering much needed academic opportunities and attracting world-class career training programs to the Martinsville-Henry County area.

"The New College Foundation and the New College Institute have always shared the same mission: to advance educational opportunities in Southwest Virginia," said Kevin DeKoninck, current Executive Director of the NCF. "However, we felt that the region would be better served if we could expand NCF's mission to focus on attracting new opportunities to Martinsville and Henry County and collaborate on future efforts to expand academic access at NCI," he continued.

The renewed mission of the MHC Academic Foundation is to provide financial and other support for the dissemination of education in Martinsville and Henry County, including the continued support of NCI. As such, NCF will broaden its mission and execute the full unencumbered scope of this new directive by becoming the MHC Academic Foundation.

On the reason for the name change, Mr. DeKoninck said, "Our new name reflects our renewed commitment to academics and the community we serve. Our Board is comprised of lifelong members of the Martinsville-Henry County community, so we felt it was necessary to rededicate ourselves to the area we call home."

Current Executive Director of NCF Kevin DeKoninck will assume a transitional leadership role for the newly reorganized MHC Academic Foundation, with the same fervor to make the region's students as academically competitive and career-ready as the rest of the Commonwealth.

"Reorganizing as the MHC Academic Foundation will allow us to better direct the use of funds towards our goals to encourage attendance at local institutions of higher education and to foster partnerships with high demand technical programs," said Mr. DeKoninck.

Simone Redd, current chair of the NCF Board of Trustees, will adapt her role to join the MHC Academic Foundation, bringing her years of expertise, cherished relationship with the community, and established leadership to see the mission of the reorganized foundation to fruition and continue to grow its relationship with NCI.

"The MHC Academic Foundation's mission does not supersede our support of NCI but rather adds to our ability to impact the community through more targeted and intentional financial support and relationship building with other academic initiatives in the area," said Simone Redd, current chair of the NCF Board of Trustees.

The MHC Academic Foundation looks forward to continuing to work with NCI and other organizations and is reenergized to carry on its mission to make educational and economic impacts in the region that will be felt for decades to come.

CONTACT: Abigail Thompson, [email protected]

SOURCE Martinsville-Henry County Academic Foundation