Medwick Byrd’s commitment to supporting NC State and the College of Natural Resources stems from his belief in the power of education to transform lives.
That was, after all, his own experience as a student at the university. A scholarship eased his family’s financial burden and gave him the chance to discover the field that would become his lifelong passion.
“Education is the biggest way a young person can change the vector of their life,” Byrd says.
Byrd, teaching professor and undergraduate coordinator for the Paper Science and Engineering Program, has given back to NC State for nearly two decades through payroll deduction and, later, the establishment of the Medwick Byrd Family Scholarship.
“Education is the biggest way a young person can change the vector of their life.”
As an undergraduate, he was much like some of the students he sees on campus today. He grew up in Johnston County in a family of farmers, and had an affinity for science and math.
Byrd enrolled at NC State in 1980 considering chemical engineering, but wasn’t sure that discipline was the best fit. His freshmen peers raved about the paper science program and that same year, he learned there was scholarship money available for students pursuing that degree.
Byrd observed hands-on learning taking place as he explored paper science, which appealed to him.
“I need to learn by doing, I’ve always been like that,” he says. “I fell in love with pulp and paper like most of our students do today.”
Financial support also appealed to Byrd, who received a scholarship covering much of the remaining three years of his schooling.
“The scholarship helped my family a lot,” he says. “We were firmly middle-class and my parents had another child to put through school. That was support for which I’ve always been appreciative.”
Byrd worked in industry after graduating but returned to NC State in the 1990’s, later completing a doctorate and beginning work for the College of Natural Resources.
He started teaching an introduction to technology course for first-year students that he still teaches today. In his words, it’s a course where “you have to be excited and they have to see that excitement.” Akin to his own experience, Byrd strives to show students the opportunities in paper science and engineering and to help them find their passion in the degree.
He has added courses and responsibilities over the years, including his role as undergraduate coordinator. In that position, he’s responsible for everything from recruiting and retention to academics and internships. The big basket of responsibility allows him to touch student lives in many ways.
Which gets to the heart of Byrd’s passion for what he does: impact students’ lives.
“I’m passionate about helping young people discover the beacon that they want to follow,” he says. “I love to teach because I love seeing them receive that information, take it in and head out to the industry.
“Then maybe they come back to share their tradition or their time to support the program – that’s the full circle.”
His passion and commitment haven’t gone unnoticed. Byrd has received several awards and recognitions over the years, including Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor in 2011 and the George H. Blessis Outstanding Undergraduate Advisor Award from the College of Engineering in 2019. When he got the Blessis Award, his students — some of them recipients of financial support themselves — spoke about the ways in which Byrd helped them succeed in their degrees.
So it makes sense that Byrd would support the College of Natural Resources and its students financially as well. When the university offered the option to donate through payroll deduction, Byrd saw a straightforward way to give each month. His gifts went toward the general scholarship fund for the Pulp and Paper Science Foundation because of his own student experience.
“Every year, I’d increase the deduction and that felt good,” Byrd says.
As those increases took place, the college took notice and suggested he could endow a scholarship. Byrd founded the endowment with his donation, and then friends and co-workers surprised him by stepping in one year on NC State Day of Giving, making contributions to fully fund the Medwick Byrd Family Scholarship Endowment.
The need-based scholarship for undergraduate students enrolled in the Paper Science Engineering Program gives preference to underrepresented students, such as those from rural areas, he says.
“Students in rural areas don’t have the advantages that students from urban high schools do in terms of technology and courses,” Byrd says. “As a land grant university, we owe it to the people of the state to change the vector of their lives.
“I’m passionate about our land grant mission and I wanted to find ways to give admission opportunities to these students.”
As a faculty member who has given back for many years, Byrd encourages his peers who are able to think about doing the same.
“The cost to attend keeps going up, and the impact on lower- and middle-income families has become more dire,” he says. “As faculty, we live it every day – we see the number of admitted students who have demonstrated financial need.
“If we have a chance to impact that in a broad way with scholarships or other philanthropy, that helps ease their burden and we see the direct effect in better grades, better performance and hopefully, in the future, seeing these students one day give back as well.”
