Helping the Best Become Even Better

NC State is a powerhouse of innovation, propelling the state of North Carolina — and the world — forward through its education and research efforts. The university’s Graduate School is a major part of that success. From the lecture hall to the laboratory and beyond, grad students play invaluable roles in how the Wolfpack translates knowledge into action.

More than 10,000 students are currently enrolled in the Graduate School across more than 200 master’s, doctoral and graduate certificate programs. Ensuring that these talented and hardworking individuals can afford to continue their higher education is of paramount importance to the university’s success.

“Private support is critical to NC State’s ‘Think and Do’ mission, enabling us to retain and build upon the research excellence that we need in order to best serve the residents of North Carolina and beyond,” Graduate School Dean Peter Harries said. “These funds in support of graduate education are essential for our successful recruitment of outstanding students who will pursue their graduate degrees at NC State.”

Walter Wilkinson Jr. is one of the generous donors who makes this funding available. An alumnus of what is now the Wilson College of Textiles, Wilkinson created a merit-based fellowship in 2016 that helps grad students achieve their full potential during their time on campus. The Wilkinson Graduate Fellowship is funded by an endowment for long-term stability, ensuring that it will continue to impact students’ lives for many years to come.

“The Wilkinson Graduate Fellowship is dedicated to bringing the most academically gifted students to NC State to pursue graduate degrees,” Harries said. “This funding allows us to make more competitive offers to graduate applicants and ensure that we continue to build exceptional talent at the institution.”

Wilkinson was born and raised in Hickory, North Carolina, one of the state’s textiles hubs at the time. Recruiters from NC State visited Wilkinson’s high school and sparked his interest in attending the university, and a scholarship provided by Hickory textile company Shuford Mills helped pay a large portion of his tuition.

“My father worked there for 40 years, as well as a couple of relatives, so that sort of led me to get started,” Wilkinson said of Shuford Mills. “I did well [at NC State], enjoyed it, and I worked two summers for the company that gave me the scholarship.”

Among Wilkinson’s many interesting college experiences was a training program through Burlington Industries, formerly known as Burlington Mills and now a subsidiary of Elevate Textiles. He worked in a variety of roles within the company, met all of its executives and even traveled to New York during the program.

Wilkinson noticed that many of Burlington’s executives were graduates of Harvard University. So, when a recruiter from the Harvard Business School visited NC State, Wilkinson struck up a conversation.

He wanted to continue his education at Harvard after graduating from NC State, but the timing wasn’t quite right.

“I told him I had to go into the service, because it was during Vietnam,” Wilkinson said. “He said, ‘Well, apply anyway. If you get in, it’ll be easy the next time.’ So, that’s what I did, and then I went into the Navy.”

Wilkinson graduated from NC State in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in textile technology. He completed his military service then enrolled at Harvard, graduating from the Harvard Business School with a master’s degree in business administration in 1974.

The U.S. textile industry experienced a sharp decline in employment in 1974, leading Wilkinson to explore other career opportunities. He had become interested in small business venture capital while at Harvard, taking courses on the subject and working with his father-in-law to start a couple of businesses. Wilkinson entered the field full-time and worked for a few different firms before creating Kitty Hawk Capital Inc. in 1980. He would lead the company for the next four decades, turning it into a premier venture capital firm that focused on the information technology and healthcare sectors.

“Venture capital firms are like anything else: They come in all sizes and shapes,” Wilkinson said. “The industry was much, much smaller than it is today, which is true of a lot of financial services, but we were small even by those standards, probably. We focused on the Southeast and helped companies that had a niche expand and grow rapidly, or sometimes we would start them from scratch.”

The desire to help others achieve their goals, along with a chance conversation with a fellow NC State/Harvard alumnus, eventually led Wilkinson to reconnect with his alma mater and create the Wilkinson Graduate Fellowship.

Wilkinson joined the Graduate School Advisory Board (GSAB) after an invitation from that classmate, who had begun serving on it with then-Dean of the Graduate School Debra Stewart. Wilkinson volunteered with the GSAB for many years and eventually served as its chair. He went on to be part of the NC State University Foundation board, the Park Selection Committee, the Alumni Association membership board and more.

Wilkinson’s already deep appreciation for graduate education continued to grow over the years through his volunteerism with the Graduate School. When Stewart began a fundraising effort to promote ethics in the Graduate School, Wilkinson and his wife, Jean, contributed to the cause by establishing the Walter H. Wilkinson Jr. Graduate Ethics Fellowship. The fund was later modified and expanded in scope to become the Wilkinson Graduate Fellowship.

Several students have received the fellowship thus far, with the Wilkinsons able to meet some of them in person or via correspondence.

“Most of the recipients are quite gifted people to begin with, to even get into the Graduate School at NC State, so it has been a pleasure to watch these highly motivated and achievement-oriented individuals,” Wilkinson said. “Graduate education is one of the strongest pursuits at NC State across all programs, and I’m eager to keep that going. What interests me are all these very unusual and exciting things you read that some of these bright young folks are doing.”

One of those highly motivated and achievement-oriented individuals is Megan Dillon, who graduated from NC State this spring with her Ph.D. in genetics and genomics. Dillon’s dissertation work focused on the semi-feral dogs that live around Ukraine’s Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, the site of the world’s largest nuclear accident.

“Over the years, we have identified a sort of genomic resilience in the dog population that has inhabited this contaminated environment for upwards of 30 generations, and our findings may have implications for other species that inhabit contaminated regions,” Dillon said. “I was advised by Dr. Matthew Breen during my Ph.D. studies, and donor support has always been critical to the research that is conducted in his lab.

“I am incredibly grateful for the support that the Wilkinson Graduate Fellowship provided for me in the final year of my graduate tenure,” Dillon added. “This financial support gave me the ability to attend the Wildlife Society’s annual conference in the fall of 2024, along with peace of mind that allowed me to focus on my research. It was truly an honor to be recognized with this fellowship.”

Ashley Anderson is another student who has been able to learn, grow and succeed at NC State because of the Wilkinson Graduate Fellowship. Anderson earned her master’s degree in graphic design from the College of Design in 2020 and is now a Ph.D. student there. She is also an assistant professor of graphic design in the College of Architecture, Arts and Design at Virginia Tech.

Anderson’s research is focused on mediating and expanding existing mental health interventions through design. She is also interested in broadening the participation of minoritized students in STEM.

“I am deeply grateful to have received the Wilkinson Graduate Fellowship for the 2022-23 academic year,” Anderson said. “Being nominated felt like such a meaningful acknowledgment of my work. This fellowship gave me the support I needed at a very crucial time and helped me keep moving forward in my doctoral studies.”

While there are numerous fellowships that Graduate School students can apply for directly, students are nominated for the Wilkinson Graduate Fellowship by their respective associate deans. Any full-time student is eligible, ensuring that the invaluable work they are conducting across all of NC State’s colleges can be highlighted and rewarded. The students get the recognition. Wilkinson covers the cost.

And everyone benefits.

For more information on the Wilkinson Graduate Fellowship, visit go.ncsu.edu/wilkinson-fellowship. To make a gift supporting the fellowship, click here.