Victoria (Tori) Hobgood (SCPS ’13) and Ben Hobgood believe in sharing, whether that means encouraging their two sons to take turns on the backyard swing or something much, much bigger—sharing the privilege of attending the University of Virginia. The couple’s recent gift, which established the Hobgood Bicentennial Scholars Fund, will support students pursuing their education in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies —the first endowed undergraduate scholarship in the school’s history.

Tori Hobgood earned her bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies in only two and a half years. It was a very hectic time in her life. She and Ben were raising two young children, and if that wasn’t enough, they were also in the process of launching their own government contracting business. “It wasn’t a typical education journey,” she said. 

Tori and Ben Hobgood in the backyard of their home in Sterling, Virginia.

That unconventional life situation was common among the students in her cohort, and their varied life experiences shaped her time in the program. “Everyone’s story was impactful and had its own level of struggle,” Tori said. “I was in school with people who were divorcing. I was in school with people who were single parents. One person lost her husband to cancer and her daughter was in the program at the same time.”

Having helped underserved communities through myriad programs and under a variety of names over the last century, today’s SCPS focuses on helping working adults finish their degrees and advance their careers by offering online and in-person degree programs and professional certificates—including the bachelor’s degree that Tori earned.

“Learning over your lifetime and continuing to be in the community and contributing back to society—that was really Thomas Jefferson’s vision,” said Melissa Lubin, who joined the school as dean in September 2022. “I like to think of SCPS as a modern-day execution of that vision.”

The Hobgoods weren’t Charlottesville natives—or residents—during Tori’s time at UVA, but they could see clearly the value of a degree from the University. Ben Hobgood served in the military and, in that capacity, occasionally worked at the National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville. During that time, he and Tori became familiar with the city, and seeing the Rotunda for the first time is a vivid memory for Tori.

“I remember driving to the campus and thinking, these are the luckiest kids to be going here,” she said. “It was unattainable for me at that time. When I decided I needed to go back to school and found SCPS, I thought, ‘Wow, could this really happen.’”

Walking the Lawn for Final Exercises was a pinnacle of the UVA experience for Tori—and for Ben. “I love telling the story,” he grinned. He describes standing his full six-feet-five-inches on a folding chair that was sinking in the mud, cheering for Tori as she accepted her diploma. “It was an amazing, amazing scene,” he said. “And it felt like the culmination of her degree work, my degree work, all of the other work that we had done together—for a few hours on a beautiful lawn in Charlottesville, Virginia, all of it came together to make an apex of challenge complete.”

Tori concurred: “When you’re my age at the time I was going back to school, you don’t think of yourself as having that memorable walk-the-Lawn experience, so it was special for me when we got to do that. I love that they folded in SCPS with the same consideration as the traditional students. It was pretty important.”

After graduating, Tori remained involved with SCPS and serves as a member of its Advisory Board. The Hobgoods have been regular contributors to the Dean’s Scholarship Fund, knowing they eventually wanted to do more. The motivation for creating an endowed scholarship was rooted in their challenging experiences as nontraditional students, both having earned their college degrees after joining the work force—and, in Ben’s case, serving in the military.

“The way we looked at it was that if adults who have these layers of responsibilities have the drive to do this, then the last thing you want is for them not be able to afford to go after it. That affects life morale right there,” Ben said. “So if we could just help one person walk that Lawn, then all the blood, sweat, and tears we put into Tori’s personal accomplishments would be passed on. To be able to do it in a way that’s legacy-related in perpetuity is amazing. We’re excited and very proud to be able to be in a position to do it.”

“I’m Hispanic,” Tori elaborated, “so to be able to attend a school like UVA was significant. From a minority perspective, I want to make sure I can have some kind of impact.”

The Hobgoods' company, Triaem, is a thriving government contracting agency founded in 2009. 

Building on Passion

The success of their company, Triaem, made sharing the SCPS experience with others a reality. Triaem is an Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business that thrived, Tori said, and she attributes part of this success to completing her UVA degree through SCPS.

“When nobody expects anything of you, nobody challenges you, you don’t really know what you’re capable of—until something like this school comes along to show you,” she said. “This program helps you figure what you’re made of, and those steppingstones helped me overcome my personal struggles with our business because I thought, if I can do that, I can do anything.”

Dean Lubin also stressed that adult learners are excellent candidates for scholarship support. Like Tori and Ben, she sees firsthand the difficulty of juggling multiple obligations that so many returning students face—and noted that that in addition to paying their own tuition, they may also be paying for their kids’ college tuition as well. Data indicate that 75% of part-time undergraduate students who apply for aid were found to have financial need.

“Another unique factor for adult learners,” she continued, “is that pursuing an education might be related to making a career switch. That means they’d be unlikely to use their employer’s education benefits because their studies would be outside of the areas for which they’d be able to receive reimbursement. Scholarships like the Hobgoods’ allow students to really follow their dream, to build on their passion, and to excel in the place that they think they can get a job—then go back and contribute and pass this on to the next generation.”