Paul Nagy admits that when he arrived at East Carolina University as a transfer student in 1980, he didn’t have the best game plan. It was ECU's Master of Public Administration program that shaped him the most, he said.

As university professors of occupational therapy, Drs. Randy and Laura Strickland know how critical the profession is and see the potential each student has to touch hundreds of lives as a practitioner. That's why the Stricklands made a planned gift to ECU — the largest in the College of Allied Health's history.

In a garden that grows upon a ribbon of old family farmland in the mountains of Ashe County, dreams are harvested alongside vegetables. The garden is a vision nurtured by Dr. Amanda Stroud '15 the dental director for AppHealthCare in northwestern North Carolina.