For the fifth consecutive year, University of Georgia donors have set a fundraising. The $242 million dollars in new gifts and pledges to the Commit to Georgia Campaign is also the second year in a row that total has surpassed $200 million. Vice President for development and alumni relations, Kelly Kerner says a significant portion of those funds are already helping hundreds of students needing financial assistance.
“We created a Georgia Commitment Scholarship Program a little more than a year and a half ago, with a goal that by the end of this fiscal year we would have created 250 new scholarships and we’ve surpassed that goal” Kerner said. “We’re at about 260 new scholarships created which means 260 lives have been changed.”
Kerner says the Georgia Commitment scholarships don’t just change the lives of the students receiving the funds.
“Most of those students are first-generation scholars, so you’ve just changed the trajectory of a family who have not considered university before and now their children are here. Now their children are here and they’re being put into a position to thrive and go on and become leaders.”
The eventual goal is the campaign is $1.2 billion by 2020. In addition to increasing scholarship support, priorities of the campaign include enhancing the learning environment and solving grand challenges through research.