"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin

When Hemant Goel met Barbara Willoughby in Charlotte in January 1986, neither could have foreseen where their partnership would take them.  Their lives were quite literally a clash of cultures.  Barbara, an Irish Catholic girl from Savannah, and Hemant, a boy from Allahabad in northern India, looked like a very unlikely couple. 

As different as their childhoods seemed, there were also many similarities.  One major similarity was their parents’ focus on education.  Both sets of parents and all of their children have at least one college degree. 

Growing up in India, getting into a good school and parlaying that into a good job post-graduation was imperative.  Hemant’s mother ran the household around her children’s schooling by encouraging good study habits and preparing practice tests for each child during exams. 

In Barbara’s family, education was a given.  Whether a college degree was in your future was never a discussion.  One attended college after high school, just as one would move from middle school to high school.  It was the natural thing to do. 

Role models were everywhere.  Advice was available for the asking, and sometimes when you didn’t ask.

Both Hemant and Barbara understood that their parents’ hard work and encouragement allowed them to pursue their degrees.  Hemant has a Bachelor of Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, as well as a Masters of Business Administration from Queens University of Charlotte.  Barbara has a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of South Carolina and a Bachelor of Health Science in Medical Technology from Duke University. 

Hemant had a plan from early in his career that he would pay it forward if he were successful. The dream of a foundation granting scholarships to first-generation college students rolled around in his brain for decades.  Although Hemant and Barbara were not first generation college students themselves, Hemant was a first-generation immigrant to the U.S., and he was keenly aware that it was his education that gave him the jumpstart to his success.  It was his desire to bring a college education within reach of others. 

The G4 Charitable Foundation was formed in late 2022 with the mission to identify and reward first-generation high school seniors with scholarships for tuition, books, and room and board, renewable for four years.  The goal of the Foundation is to create a community of individuals who love to learn and mentor others, and who would otherwise not have the means to attend college. The Goel Scholarship is administered through the Honors College at Georgia Southern University.  

With the grant from the Foundation, Georgia Southern established the Goel Scholars within their Honors College, providing funding for a minimum of five recipients per year.  In addition to Georgia students, the scholarship is also available to students in the border states of South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, or Alabama.  Beyond financial support, the Goels actively mentor recipients, connecting them with internships and offering career guidance.

There have been six Goel Scholars graduates since the program began at Georgia Southern. Goel Scholar alumni are encouraged to stay in touch with the Foundation and to be involved in mentoring current scholars with the hope that these alumni will pass on the knowledge and advice to a new generation of students whose own village may not have the ability to so.  In this way, the village is expanded to include scholars, graduates, faculty, and industry mentors who together can share insights, goals, and successes going forward.  While the total number of scholars remains to be seen, the Foundation has its sights set on sponsoring 1,000 scholars over time.  The current number of scholars sponsored by the G4 Charitable Foundation currently stands at 25, so there is much work to be done.

In recognition of their significant contributions to advancing education for first-generation college students through their philanthropic efforts, Hemant and Barbara were awarded honorary doctorates by Georgia Southern University at the Fall 2024 Commencement ceremony held on December 17, 2024 on the Georgia Southern Statesboro campus.  Their recognition was part of a ceremony that conferred approximately 2,100 degrees, including one of their Goel Scholars.