Janice and Charles Castles Create Legacy and Support Scholarships with Estate-Plan Gift

An extraordinary estate gift from a daughter and her husband to honor her parents will touch the lives of generations of students to come through scholarships for Georgia Southern University students working to become public school educators. The $1.48 million gift from the late Janice Sapp Castles and her late husband Charles, named for her late parents, Margaret Elizabeth and Cullen Bernice Sapp, is the second-largest estate gift received to date by the Georgia Southern University Foundation.

“It is inspiring when alumni, whose lives were transformed through education, give back so generously so that future students can realize the same opportunities,” said Georgia Southern President Kyle Marrero. “The Castles’ gift honors the Sapps’ legacy and their desire to help others succeed.”

An alumna of then-Armstrong Junior College, Janice Castles earned an associate of arts degree with the financial assistance of a scholarship. That scholarship, coupled with her parents’ determination to live sacrificially to provide for educational opportunities for their children that they themselves had not experienced, allowed her to begin her post-secondary academic ambitions. The scholarship she received also inspired her to give back.

Castles continued her education at the University of Georgia earning a master’s and specialist degree in counseling as well as a doctorate in school psychology. Her longstanding education career included serving as a middle and high school teacher, guidance counselor, school counselor, and adjunct professor. She also formed her own psychology practice that provided therapy and psychological assessment and diagnosis in the Atlanta area.

“My conversations with Janice a few years ago revealed her passion and commitment to the field of teaching,” said Executive Director of Development Julie Gerbsch ’09. “She loved and appreciated her parents, and she was grateful to the University for the strong education she received.”