The University of Mary Washington (UMW) is a public liberal arts university in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the Fredericksburg Teachers College, the institution was named Mary Washington College in 1938 after Mary Ball Washington, mother of the first president of the United States, George Washington. The General Assembly of Virginia changed the college's name to the University of Mary Washington in 2004 to reflect the addition of graduate and professional programs to the central undergraduate curriculum, as well as the establishment of more than one campus. Each year, students pursue more than 60 majors and programs of graduate and undergraduate study through the university's three colleges: Arts and Sciences, Business, and Education. One third of UMW's undergraduate students study abroad before graduation, taking advantage of 121 study abroad programs in 56 countries. History On March 14, 1908, Virginia Governor Claude A. Swanson signed into law legislation for the establishment of the new State Normal and Industrial School for Women. It was called Fredericksburg Teachers College. The institution was renamed Mary Washington College in 1938 after Mary Ball Washington, mother of the first president of the United States of America, George Washington, and longtime resident of Fredericksburg. In 1944 the college became associated with the University of Virginia as its women's college. Until that time, the University of Virginia had not admitted women as undergraduates, except in its education and nursing programs, although its postgraduate programs were coeducational. Following UVA's transition to coeducational status in 1970, the Virginia General Assembly reorganized Mary Washington College in 1972 as a separate, coeducational institution. In 1988, the University's Center for Historic Preservation established the Historic Preservation Book Prize, awarded annually by a jury of preservation academics and professionals to the book with the most potential for breaking new ground and positively impacting the discipline of historic preservation in the United States. Since that time, the Prize has gone to David Lowenthal, Roy Rosenzweig, Elizabeth Blackmar, Mike Wallace, Richard Longstreth, Francoise Astorg Bollack, Catherine Fleming Bruce (the first African-American awardee) and Thomas Hubka, among others. The General Assembly of Virginia enacted legislation changing the college's name to University of Mary Washington on March 19, 2004, to reflect the addition of master's degree programs and the establishment of more than one campus. The university's first LEED-certified building, CGPS North Building, was built in 2007. The university houses stops along the route of the Fredericksburg