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Dear AU Community,

At today’s Celebration of Scholarships event, our students, our alumni, and friends came together to celebrate how we, as a community, support our changemakers on their paths of purpose. And we announced a new effort to help our students who experience unexpected financial challenges during their time at AU.

As part of our commitment to student thriving, the Elevate Scholarship Initiative – a new program designed to support AU undergraduate students for years to come – will raise $25 million in unrestricted scholarship funds to support enrolled undergraduate students. And, the university will match that $25 million dollar overall philanthropic investment, doubling our donors’ impact!

Each year, as many as 500 of our undergraduate students experience changes to their financial circumstances. This strain could cause them to pass up on experiential learning opportunities, pause their studies, take on additional loans, or at worst, drop out altogether. The Elevate Scholarship Initiative is our financial and philosophical commitment to support students in these situations.

As a scholarship recipient myself in college and graduate school, I appreciate how important financial security can be, and how easily it can be disrupted. The Elevate Scholarship Initiative will help more students keep going in the face of these stressors and stay on their paths to lead lives of purpose. So far, we have raised almost $5 million, including a recent $2 million gift that catalyzed the launch of this effort.

When students have financial security, they have unburdened opportunity to focus on their studies, engage in campus life, and participate in valuable experiential learning. They can pursue research and career development activities, study abroad, and partake in internships. These are some of the opportunities that make an undergraduate education at AU unique. The AU Elevate Scholarship Initiative helps ensure they are available to all students. I hope you will learn more, join us in this effort and celebrate the alumni, friends, and scholars we honored this week!

Sincerely,
Sylvia