Double vision: Twin alums Kenneth and Steven Ender both rose to college presidencies

By Chelyen Davis

When the Ender brothers — twins Kenneth and Steven — enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1968, they didn’t have their future careers mapped out.

They certainly didn’t think, when they majored in management in the VCU School of Business, that they would one day become college presidents. 

But they did, crediting their VCU experience for their later success. Now in the past few months, both have established endowed scholarships in the School of Business to help future students. The Steven C. Ender and Karen L. Gislason-Ender Endowed Scholarship is intended to provide support for first-generation students in the School of Business, with preference to students majoring in business management. The Kenneth and Catherine Ender Endowed Scholarship is for students who have transferred from a community college into the VCU School of Business, with a preference given to first-generation college students. 

“I recognize what education can really do. I will tell you, the business management major got me the presidency. The doctorate got me the credential,” said Steven Ender, Ed.D.. “You’ve got to give back when you have that type of impactful experience.”

The brothers say they’re living examples of the biggest lessons they’ve come to understand about higher education: its power to impact the entire family. 

“Once a family member earns a degree, it's very unlikely that others behind them won't earn a degree, but there's got to be a first one to set the stage, and that changes the whole trajectory of a family,” said Kenneth Ender, Ph.D. 

“This was pretty special for our family,” Steven agreed. “When folks go to college, their kids typically go to college. We changed that arc at VCU.” Indeed, both of his children went to college and are “thriving,” he said.

Getting hooked on higher ed

Raised in Richmond, the brothers came to VCU, they say, because their father insisted they go to college. They majored in business management, just expecting they would figure it out as they went along. 

For Steven, that changed when a professor, retired Army Col. Collin Bushway, told him that he was wasting his potential. 

“He said, ‘You know, you're a gentleman’s C student, but you could be an A student if you want to. You have a lot to say, but you don't say it. You need to take some risks and begin to speak what's on your mind,’” Steven said. “And that conversation changed my entire academic career. It was all A’s after that. He just called me out. … And to this day, he’s one of the reasons why my career and my life has evolved to where it is now.”

Kenneth, meanwhile, describes himself as a shy student who might have flunked out had he not gotten involved with student life and student affairs at VCU. 

“Those folks really took a shine to me and really helped me, and I ended up thinking, ‘Boy, I want to have the kind of jobs they have. This looks like it's fun around a college campus,’” he said. “But to do that, I'd have to have a master's degree and that required a whole different attitude about my courses and my grades. And that changed my trajectory totally. I was hooked on higher education.”

Presidential careers

After they graduated from VCU in 1973, Kenneth headed to the University of Georgia to work on a master’s degree, while Steven took a corporate job. But he hated it and eventually joined Kenneth at Georgia to pursue his own master’s degree and ultimately a doctorate in education, while Kenneth earned a doctorate from VCU in 1988. Their careers ran on different but parallel paths, as they both rose through the higher education tracks.

Kenneth, for his part, returned to VCU, working as what he calls a “trouble-shooter” for various administrative offices – including being part of the design and construction process of the Commons and the Cary Street Gym – before he “became enamored of the idea of becoming a college president.” 

In 1998, he landed his first job as college president at Cumberland County College in New Jersey (now the Cumberland Campus of Rowan College of South Jersey), before moving to Harper College in Illinois.

Steven’s career focused on problem-solving, and having worked for presidents and seen what it entailed, he started to realize he was as capable of being president as the presidents he was working for. He became president of Westmoreland County Community College in Pennsylvania in 2005 and then Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan.

“I was not surprised that I ended up in the presidency,” Steven said.

Both have now retired from presidential jobs. 

Helping others find their footing at VCU

The brothers talk about the values and work ethics they learned from their father — who pushed them to get jobs at 13, saved half their paychecks for their futures and required them to work to pay for their college education. Those values and work ethics have served them well, they said, and as they think about their own impact on future students, they want to provide similar opportunities. 

That’s why they established endowed scholarships in the School of Business. Kenneth focused his scholarship on students transferring from community colleges because he’s aware of how difficult it can be for a student to transition to a four-year institution. 

Asked what they would like to leave as a legacy, Kenneth said he has tried to create opportunities for students that echo the lessons and opportunities he had. For example, as a college president, he started programs that promised high school students acceptance and some level of tuition help if they followed workforce values like showing up on time, producing quality work, finishing what they started and giving back to their communities. 

Steven said he typically scoffs at the idea of a legacy, but that he hopes he has modeled the value of being authentic.

“What's really important to me? Through my career, and I hope what I modeled for people around me, is to be authentic. To work with the custodian the way you would work with the dean .... To model a hard day's work.”

If he could leave students with a lesson, Steven said he’d give them the same advice he received from Col. Bushway all those years ago: “Find your voice. Find your voice in all endeavors, in the community meeting or in the classroom, but you've got to take those risks of becoming an adult, you know. It's a risk full of adventure, but you’ve got to do it.”