Advanced Placement
UAB and Local Students Benefit from Anonymous Gift
An anonymous $4 million cash gift designated for scholarships for women and minorities has allowed UAB to develop a new Advanced Placement (AP) Scholarship Program for seniors in the Birmingham City Schools system. The first students to participate in the program will be eligible to receive their scholarships for the fall 2011 term.
“We will now be able to offer full tuition-and-fee four-year scholarships to up to 20 deserving students each year, and one-time awards of $1,000 each to up to 50 students each year,” UAB President Carol Garrison says. “This AP-related program would not be possible without the generosity of our unknown benefactor and the hard work and collaboration of UAB Provost Eli Capilouto [D.M.D.] and Birmingham City Schools Superintendent Craig Witherspoon [Ed.D.] and their teams, and we are very appreciative of them all. UAB is delighted to offer this sort of opportunity to the ambitious and college-ready young men and women of the city we call home. They are the leaders and scholars of tomorrow.”
Birmingham Mayor William A. Bell applauded UAB and the Birmingham City Schools on working together to create an innovative program that will benefit the city’s residents. “The city of Birmingham recognizes that educating our young people today will equip them for whatever their tomorrows hold,” Bell says. “We have long been proud to point to UAB as an incredible resource for our community, and this is yet another example of the leadership and commitment to Birmingham shown by the university.”
UAB received the anonymous gift in May 2009; it totaled $5 million. Of that, the funds not used for scholarships ($1 million) are to be used for strategic initiatives that emerge from ongoing campuswide discussions related to planning for the future of the university’s academic, research, and health-care enterprise. The gift was similar to those announced by other universities during the same time frame. All scholarships and programs related to the gift will be funded with earnings generated from its investment. Capilouto, whose office has oversight responsibility for all academics at UAB, says the new scholarship program will offer students the chance to pursue an Advanced Placement Achievement Award or an Advanced Placement Recognition Award.
“The AP Achievement Award winners will be guaranteed that the cost of tuition and fees will be met with gift aid, and the award is renewable for four years based on its terms and conditions,” Capilouto says. “To qualify, students who are, or have enrolled, in two or more AP courses must apply and be admitted to UAB by March 1 of their senior year for consideration. Students who earn grades of B or higher in all AP coursework and a score of 3 or higher on a minimum of two subsequent AP exams will be considered for this award.”
“We anticipate even more growth in AP enrollment, and this scholarship program will give our students a greater incentive to take on the challenge of AP courses,” Witherspoon says. “This is a wonderful collaboration that will help our students realize their dreams.”
This endowment also will benefit graduate students through a family assistanceship that will support adult students with dependents who would not be able to complete graduate studies without the support.
Maintaining the Momentum / Winter 2011