Gratitude report

A Legacy Built Over
Decades
When Virginia Hislop was a child, she lived
in Los Angeles. Her aunt was a school
principal in a district where many of the
students were minorities and from economically
disadvantaged families. What Hislop saw in those
families, the hope parents had for their children and
the drive that the students had to get an education,
shaped a lifetime commitment to ensuring access
and equity in education. Her drive helped build
Heritage University from the "little college that
could" to a thriving institution of higher learning, and
allowed thousands to earn degrees that helped them
build economic prosperity.
It was 1984, just two years after Heritage
University began when Fort Wright College
closed its doors and left the Yakima Valley in an
academic desert. Hislop was just getting off the
board of directors for Yakima Valley Community
College and had previously served for 20 years on
the Yakima School Board. By her own admission,
she wasn’t too impressed with this newly formed
college and had graciously declined several
invitations to visit Heritage to learn more. That
is until two Yakima Valley business people she
respected asked her to meet with the university’s
president, Sr. Kathleen Ross.
“I went and visited with Kathleen in the winter and
I was impressed with what she was trying to do,” she
said. “There was such a great need and they were
trying so hard, but had so little to work with.”
Hislop comes from a long line of educators
and lawyers, she said. Her grandmother, who
was a major influence on her, was the school
superintendent in a small Kansas town in the 1870s.
Virginia Hislop (center) shows her Eagle pride with fellow
supporters Sonja Dodge (left) and Bertha Ortega (right).
Her father was an attorney. She grew up with an
appreciation for education and public service, and
the tenacity to stand up against injustices.
“We were a family that believed in taking action.
If you could make a change, why not try,” she said.
“I was blessed that I had what was probably the
best education you could receive on the West Coast
(she graduated from Stanford in the 1940s with a
teaching certificate) and felt like I needed to pass
that opportunity along to others.”
It was with this attitude that Hislop’s 36-year
commitment to Heritage began. It started simply.
She and a few other volunteers agreed to plan a
fundraiser—a dinner to raise money for scholarships.
“I asked them how much they wanted to raise and
was told ‘$5,000 would be nice.’ I said ‘I think we
can do better than that!’”
It was the first Scholarship Dinner and it netted
$35,000. Since then, the annual dinner has brought
in more than $7 million, and Hislop has been at
every single one!
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