UC Students at Innovation Hub

There's a story unfolding at UC, and every one of us who calls Greater Cincinnati home has a stake in what happens next.

Bucking trends in higher education, UC is growing—and alongside it, so does our commitment to students. With 50,000 students and a rapidly changing world, UC is accelerating our work to ensure each student succeeds.

Why? Because we know that a college degree is the best tool for generational change. And a UC degree is the best path to launch a career of meaning and impact.

Under a broad, university-wide vision, we are creating new scholarships and recruitment programs, adding student-centered resources, and elevating career readiness tools to empower the next generation of leaders.

Together, we will create:

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An opportunity for every student who wants to earn a UC degree, free from financial barriers.

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A community where each Bearcat feels like they belong—and has the tools to thrive.

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A path to success that sets UC apart as the launching place for tomorrow's leaders and change-makers.

Our Priorities

An Opportunity

Tanzania

To create a Bearcat community that reflects and serves our region and nation, we must address affordability gaps to enrollment and ensure students can navigate inevitable financial hurdles after they are accepted. Our record enrollment rates are a testament to UC’s competitive value proposition. Still, students from various backgrounds can struggle to cover the cost of college, fees, housing, food and other out-of-pocket expenses.

Our priorities include:

  • Expand CPS Strong, our focused effort to recruit top students from Cincinnati Public Schools and increase the number of degree-holding residents in our region.

  • Grow recruitment-focused scholarships to draw in high-demand students from across the nation and allow us to compete with financial packages offered by our Big 12 peers.

  • Create new scholarship programs that provide innovative, interdisciplinary training to fuel entrepreneurship, inspire leadership and equip students with the critical skills needed to solve the problems of tomorrow.

A Community

Claudia Rebola

Across UC, we are accelerating our efforts to support an inclusive environment that meets students where they are.

We will expand programs that prepare incoming students with college readiness skills, support campus centers of belonging and community and grow new mental health initiatives for student well-being.

Our priorities include:

  • First-generation students and scholarships: Scale our successful Gen-1 model to reach the 9,200 first-generation UC students across campuses.

  • Flexible funding: Many students face unexpected costs related to housing, health, transportation or other life issues. We will expand access to flexible funds to ensure a one-time expense doesn’t derail a college career.

A Path for Success

University of Cincinnati Campus

As the birthplace of cooperative education, UC is a global leader in co-op, running one of the largest co-op programs in the United States. Each year, students benefit from more than 8,300 hands-on, real-world co-op placements—experiences that are an indispensable part of their education and launching their careers.

The new College of Co-op and Professional Studies (CCPS) allows staff to integrate and streamline services, as well as expands co-op programs, internships, and ongoing professional development for adult learners. Our goal is to provide every Bearcat with a meaningful opportunity for experiential learning.

Our priorities include:

  • Advising and mentorship: Increase the number of co-op advisors, coaches and mentors. Students cite one-on-one engagement with an advisor or mentor as a top benefit of CCPS.

  • Elevated programming: Unlock student potential by extending co-op opportunities to untapped student groups, and creating new programs for non-traditional students.

  • Financial barriers: Remove hardships to the top co-op placements by increasing wrap-around funding to cover travel, housing and other expenses.

For Our Students, For Our Future

In a rapidly changing world, UC stands out as a public university that is growing, thriving and doubling down on our commitment to the value of higher education.

We are committed to cultivating tomorrow’s leaders – because we know that by investing in our students, we are investing in our region’s future for generations to come. Together, we can drive our tremendous momentum forward and propel UC into a new era of attracting and graduating tomorrow’s innovators and leaders. Together, we can provide an opportunity, a community and a path to success for every Bearcat now and into the future.

Join us in elevating student success at UC with an investment in one of the following areas of impact:

Please click below for more details on each of these programs of impact.

Marian Spencer Scholars

Launched in 2022, this flagship scholarship program is named for Cincinnati’s civil rights leader and UC alumna Marian Spencer.

As a flagship element of UC’s commitment to Cincinnati Public Schools, the program currently provides 10 CPS graduates a year with full tuition, room and board support as well as meaningful cohort international experiences, mentoring and career coaching and a live-learn community within Marian Spencer Hall.

Mantei/Mae Innovation Fund: Marian Spencer Scholarship Program

NEXT Innovation Scholars

This highly selective scholarship program leverages UC’s signature strengths and strategic relationships to create an interdisciplinary, cohort-based educational program centered on design thinking and innovation.

Students receive engagement and immersive opportunities above and beyond their course of study—working with corporate partners, faculty advisors and each other to shape a career of impact.

The Mary Anne Thornton Schultz & Mary Thornton Innovation Scholarship Fund

Presidential Fund Challenge

The newly established College of Co-op and Professional Studies is the home through which UC’s No. 1 co-op program will expand and evolve. The college will further expand career preparedness for students and professional development for adult learners.

The Office of the Preside nt has seeded this priority area with a $1 million fund for challenge initiatives and growth.

Presidential Co-op Challenge

UC Student Emergency Fund

This fund provides targeted emergency financial assistance to full-time students experiencing an unanticipated situation that could derail their studies, for example housing or transportation needs.

Use of this valuable resource is growing: In the 2022-23 academic year, the fund assisted 46 students and disbursed $16,600. In the fall 2023 semester alone, awarded funds totaled to $17,373.

The University of Cincinnati Student Emergency Fund

To learn more about supporting our student success initiatives through philanthropy, please contact:

Headshot of Chris Eden

Chris Eden

Assistant VP of Development

Chris.Eden@foundation.uc.edu

(513) 556-0912