Access for 21 st Century Dickinsonians
New Endowed Scholarships
 Dickinson's distinction as a “useful” 21 st century liberal arts education intended to create global citizen-leaders requires a collective body of outstanding teachers and learners who represent a diverse spectrum of backgrounds, cultures and intellectual perspectives. Our students must represent a variety of worldviews, cultural heritages and life experiences that will broaden our understanding of 21st-century society. And they must have a willingness to take responsibility, not only for themselves, but also for those around them, to listen to others and to develop their own confident voice in using their education to lead lives of active citizenship and leadership. Our success in forging our Dickinsonian style of American education relies on bringing to the College a talented student body receptive to our mission and predisposed to participate in it fully. To reach our goals we must sustain the College's commitment to support access for students of high ability with financial need.
To its lasting credit, Dickinson College has always been generous in providing scholarship assistance to students . However, far too much of our scholarship aid is drawn from the annual operating budget rather than from dedicated endowments— three times as much as at peer institutions. Over time, with different financial pressures, the commitment to providing access to the best students from around the nation and the world could wane unless the funds to support these students are endowed in perpetuity, thereby helping to assure Dickinson's longstanding commitment to educating future generations of citizen-leaders. Only substantially increased scholarship endowment—$46 million—will give Dickinson the ability to identify, attract and retain those exceptional students we seek—regardless of their financial need. These new resources will:
Make Dickinson “Popular”
Our founder intended that Dickinson's reputation as a premier college would attract financial resources and make it “popular” — meaning open to all people of the new nation. Today, we seek a Dickinson community that is truly representative of the world's people: a mixture of people from various races, cultures, regions, nationalities, religions and socio-economic backgrounds. We seek students with a diversity of talents who share high academic motivation and an eagerness to contribute to the Dickinson community. The last few years has brought increasing success in achieving such diversity. Our momentum cannot be lost to the vagaries of the annual availability of funds.
Preserve Our Legacy of First-Generation Students
Dickinson College has historically distinguished itself in making the College affordable to those from the lowest economic quartile, as represented particularly by students whose parents had not had access to college. At the nation's most selective colleges, students from families earning below $40,000 per year make up about 5 percent of the enrollments. Dickinson enrolls about twice as many of these students, but only endowment can provide the financial assurance that will allow the College to preserve and increase this commitment in the future.
Launch Unprecedented Fulbright-Style Access to Undergraduate Global Study
Dickinson distinguishes itself nationally as a leader in the globalization of its curriculum. To the extent that we continue to send a high percentage of our students overseas regularly with no additional financial burden upon them, we will remain the institution that defines global education for America's liberal arts colleges. To this end, Dickinson wishes to establish a nationally unprecedented named endowment to underwrite study abroad—much in the design and spirit of the distinguished Fulbright program that has had a profound effect upon international understanding and global leadership for decades.
Attract an International Student Body
Dickinson cannot be a truly global campus if our student community does not encompass ample international perspectives and voices. Our international students contribute enormously to the globalization of the Dickinson experience. Dickinson also presents a rare opportunity for students from abroad because nothing like American-style liberal arts education exists throughout most of the rest of the world. If we are to educate truly global citizen-leaders engaged in 21 st century solutions throughout the world, we must secure the financial support necessary to attract international students to Dickinson in greater numbers.
Goal: New Endowed Scholarships —$46 Million
Next: A Signature 21st Century Interdisciplinary Science Complex
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