Sweet Briar College receives a $5 million lead gift to renovate its science and engineering building

Sweet Briar College announces that it has received a $5 million lead commitment to renovate Guion Science Center from an anonymous alumna.

This gift will help to modernize the building, which is home to Sweet Briar’s engineering and other science disciplines. The building will receive technology upgrades in labs, classrooms, and faculty offices. Classrooms will have more multimedia immersive capacities. The ventilation system will also be updated, including additional fume hoods, a new in-house vacuum system and a new compressed air system. The lab benches will be upgraded to streamlined lab stations. The current courtyard at the front entrance of Guion will become a central atrium connecting the first and second floors and will offer gathering and lounge space for students, faculty, and visitors.

“I am deeply grateful to our alumna donor for her generous commitment,” said Sweet Briar president Meredith Woo. “Her gift will ensure that Sweet Briar’s innovative spirit will continue for future generations who will continue to be pathbreakers.”

In 2010, a gift from Margaret Jones Wyllie ’45 established an endowed engineering program named for Ms. Wyllie, one of only two ABET-accredited engineering programs at a women’s college in the United States. Since then, the engineering department has called Guion home in addition to the other science divisions.

This $5 million commitment enhances another $1 million gift received from another anonymous alumna earlier this year. Both contributions were made by alumnae who majored in or have had careers based in the sciences.

With these renovations and modernizations, Guion will become a magnet for the next generation of women leaders, problem solvers, and innovators in biology, chemistry, engineering, environmental science, mathematics, physics and psychology.