Open people up to an education they might not otherwise have been able to afford, and you’ll open their minds as wide as they can go. UMD currently has 252 named, endowed scholarship programs. Our goal through the Reaching Higher Scholarship Initiative is to increase that number to 350. When combined with matching funds from UMD, those programs will translate into an additional 850 scholarship awards — opening doors to more students than ever before. And opening their minds in an incredibly powerful, life-changing way. As the endowment grows so does the opportunity.

Open Books:
Open up a student’s schedule, and you’ll see that many have one, two, or even three part-time jobs to alleviate the high costs of a good education. Many more graduate with significant student loans.
Our goal is to increase UMD’s scholarship and financial awards from 2,650 to 3,500 annually, to enable more students to concentrate fully on their academic challenges and not on the challenge of paying for their education.

Open Eyes:
Open yourself up to the possibilities of what one gift can do. Because in this case, it does twice the work.
To ensure that the Reaching Higher Scholarship Initiative has the greatest impact, UMD will match each scholarship with institutional funds at the time it is awarded. If a student receives a $1,000 scholarship from this campaign, we’ll make it a $2,000 scholarship. Automatically. And that doubles the chances for each student’s success.

Open Doors:
Open the opportunities for excellence, and people will show you how exceptional they can be.
Since 1998, student enrollment has grown every year, and our documented academic excellence has been rising right along with it. Library usage has also increased — more than 250% — in the past four years. We’re growing, and our needs in the library are growing as well. Part of this initiative is to provide endowed funding for electronic periodicals. As we grow, we also have more students who need assistance. With your help, we can make it reachable for more and more students to turn opportunities into success.

Open Up:
Your gift plays a vital role in maintaining and improving the level of excellence at this university. You open doors to maximize the educational experience for students. This opens their lives wider than any other opportunity could, and we thank you for making that possible at UMD

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Library Endowment - $4,000,000

Scholarship Initiative - $16,000,000
College of Education & Human Service Professions
College of Liberal Arts
College of Science & Engineering
Intercollegiate Athletics
Labovitz School of Business & Economics
School of Fine Arts

Other Academic Programs and Projects - $1,000,000

Total Initiative - $21,000,000