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| Mark and Tracy Copeland with their son, Bryan, 5, and daughter, Taylor, 9. |
An opportunity helped Mark and Tracy Copeland get where they are today, and Mark will proudly tell you this opportunity arose because they are Pirates. And proud Pirates they are.
In 1994, when Mark and Tracy were accounting majors at East Carolina University, Mark had a chance to serve as an intern on an audit team for Unifi Inc., and that started him on the path toward success. He got that chance because fellow Pirate Bob Ward, retired executive vice president and chief financial officer for Unifi, requested that Ernst & Young's audit team include an ECU student. That student was Mark Copeland.
"The thing that meant the most to my wife and me is that he didn't know who we were," Mark says. "He just believed in the students of ECU. He trusted that whoever was selected would work hard and make him proud, and he took that chance, which meant a lot for me."
Today, Mark is a partner at Ernst & Young in Charlotte, where he runs the firm's largest office in North Carolina.
"And that's all because of Mr. Ward making a simple phone call to give somebody a chance," Mark says. "It takes more people making that effort to open the door for our students and give them an opportunity to be successful."
Ensuring that East Carolina's students have the chance to be successful is one reason the Copelands have done something an increasing number of donors are doing— making annual and major gifts to ECU and ensuring their legacy continues by making a planned gift to the university.
"The Wards have meant a lot to us because of what they did," Mark says. "We always thought if we were in a position that we could give back, scholarships are a way to support others. To me, it's helping somebody—I don't need to know who I'm helping. But if they remember that somebody else helped them, when they get their feet underneath them, they can give back to help the next generation of Pirates to ensure they get the same opportunities we had."
Giving Back to ECU Family
To do just that, Mark and Tracy established an endowment fund for a scholarship in the College of Business for an Honors College student. They also fund two scholarships in the College of Business that they will merge into an Access Scholarship for a business student next year and make annual undesignated gifts to the College of Business.
"ECU is the primary beneficiary we include in our charitable giving plan each year, and this is a direct result of the impact that the university had on our life. When reflecting on my time since graduating, it's because of my family—my parents, wife and children—but it's also because of my family at East Carolina that put me in a position to allow me to have these types of opportunities to make a difference in business and in my community."
Encourages Others to Give
Mark, who recently joined the ECU Foundation board of directors and sits on the university's board of visitors and the College of Business's advisory council, wants to see other Pirates support the ECU family in whatever way they can.
"The university is under more pressure now than it's ever been, with the reduction in public funding. We, as alumni who have gone out and had successful careers, need to remember where we received the education that put us in that position. We need to give back to the students who are there today, because their families are under tremendous pressure, trying to decide whether their student should stay in school or not because of financial concerns."
Mark says he believes in the quality of education at ECU and the impact students can have on their communities, the region and beyond.
"We have to be a university that's putting quality kids out into the workforce so we can continue to tell the story about the great things that ECU does. When I think about the financial impact East Carolina has on the eastern region of the state and the state overall, for that to continue to happen we're going to need more private support.
"Our alumni certainly understand how tough the financial situation is for ECU now. Every dollar makes a difference, and it does affect the quality of education for the students. We have about 140,000 living alumni—if we could increase the number of people giving by a couple of percent, it would mean a significant difference."
To find out how you can make an impact on ECU students, contact Greg Abeyounis at 252-328-9573 or abeyounisg@ecu.edu.
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