The Jefferson Trust announced last week the awarding of 22 grants to innovative projects planned by University students and faculty.
The Trust is an endowment which provides seed money funding for new projects and initiatives for any group, student or faculty member from any school across Grounds.
“We’re doing it because members of the Alumni Association have noticed that [with] funding, as tight as it is, there are many new initiatives that just do not get funded,” said Kaye Forsman, senior director of development of the Jefferson Trust. “So this is a source of unrestricted money that each year the Trustees of the Jefferson Trust can decide to give out to worthy projects.”
Forsman said the Trust looks for projects that display innovation, collaboration, entrepreneurship and work across units or schools within Grounds.
“Most [importantly] something that will further the reputation of the University of Virginia globally, and/or improve the student experience here at U.Va.,” Forsman said.
The 22 grants were publicly presented to recipients Friday afternoon at the Rotunda.
Third-year College student Andrew Hayden was one of a group of students who received the Experiential Entrepreneurship Education grant.
“We applied for this grant because there is a need for expanded entrepreneurship at U.Va.,” Hayden said.
Julie Caruccio, director of student affairs for the Community Engagement Network at the University, was a recipient of a grant funding for the Arts Mentors Program.
“We’re sort of cobbling together funding from lots of different offices, and so the funding that the Jefferson Trust is giving us is going to enable the program to be a lot more institutionalized, and allow us to add additional rigor to the curricular piece, as well as sort of flesh it out and allow us to spend more time planning, because that is what has been missing,” Caruccio said.
Caruccio said the Trust’s grant will allow the program to hire staff to help support and run the program.
Art History Prof. Maurie McInnis received a grant for a project called “Jefferson’s University: the Early Years, 1817 to 1870,” which will digitize all of the University’s early records so they are easily researchable in an online database.
“So [students] would be able to go to this resource and be able to research about a person, about a subject matter, all the times that students in the University of Virginia in its early years were rioting on the Lawn, or if you wanted to understand the history of how medicine was taught at the University, you would be able to go to the database and find that out,” McInnis said.
Forsman said the Jefferson Trust receives funding from donors and an endowment at the Alumni Association.
Donors who make donations of $100,000 or more have the opportunity to sit on the Trust Board and help decide which grants get funded every year.
“We call it a ‘shared philanthropy’ model, which is fairly unique,” Forsman said.
Read More
U.Va. Alumni Association submits plans for new Alumni Hall building
By Caroline Hagood | YesterdayWest said that despite the proposal moving through City Council’s review process, the project is still years away from becoming a reality.
Graduating student leaders reflect on how they impacted the University community
By Jackie Bond and Brandon Kile | YesterdayAccording to Lilian Rojas, Board of Visitors student representative and fourth-year Batten student, the Class of 2024 is defined by its resilience.
D.C. baseball legend Ryan Zimmerman to deliver keynote Valedictory address
By Xander Tilock | 3 days agoFamously nicknamed “Mr. National” for his many contributions to the Washington, D.C. franchise, Zimmerman is considered one of the most successful alumni in Virginia baseball history.
