Campaign highlights
Far Above … The Campaign for Cornell is empowering Cornell to lead in education, research and outreach far into the 21st century. Since the
$4 billion effort was launched two years ago, thousands of alumni and friends have stepped forward to help. Together, they have:
Created 44 new professorships in colleges and professional schools across the university, established more than 229 named scholarship funds for undergraduates and endowed a number of funds to assist graduate and professional school students.
Every student, every study, every year
The Cornell Annual Fund is a central campaign priority and a powerful way for all Cornellians to impact the future of their alma mater. The Annual Fund's goal is to double in size by the end of the campaign, providing millions more dollars of direct support each year to help students, advance research, strengthen the faculty, and more.
This past year, the Annual Fund raised $21.5 million, a 17 percent increase over the previous year. That success is the result of 31,100 alumni, parents, and friends who chose to support Cornell through an annual gift. To make a gift or find more information about how the Annual Fund supports every student, in every study, every year, please visit alumni.cornell.edu/fund.
CAMPAIGN UPDATE
Looking for a good investment? Try education
Nearly every day we hear from students and recent graduates about the value of their Cornell education. Their individual stories always move us.
Branden Bryan '11 lived with his family in apartments with no heat and experienced homelessness. Now he is a dean's list student of neurobiology and behavior, is training to be a peer counselor and works at Cornell Law School. "Thanks to those who support the Goldman Sachs Alumni Scholarship, thanks to Cornell and thanks to a few others, I've never been more excited about my future," Bryan says.
Growing up in Mexico City, Arturo Carrillo '96, M.Eng. '97, learned about Cornell from American friends in his Boy Scout troop and enrolled in the College of Engineering. But when Mexico faced a severe financial crisis, his parents could no longer afford their share of their son's tuition. Through a newly established scholarship fund for international students, Cornell was able to help Carrillo meet his expenses. Today, with an additional degree from Harvard Business School, he is the chief financial officer of a Memphis, Tenn.-based subsidiary of Mexico's Grupo Vitro.
"Throughout my career I have been navigating between Latin American countries and U.S. businesses or markets," says Carrillo. "My time at Cornell prepared me for this career."
Stories like Bryan's and Carrillo's remind us that supporting education is one of the best investments we can make as individuals and as a society. It never fails to yield big returns, regardless of what measure you use. At Cornell, it is also a way to make a personal difference in the lives of deserving and inspiring young people. Many of you already do so through your generous gifts to student aid or through the Annual Fund.
Recent changes in Cornell's financial aid policy are increasing access for students from low- and middle-income families, but this bold action comes with a cost that can be met only with help from alumni and friends. Now is the time to renew our commitment and continue the legacy of opening doors to students from all backgrounds, regardless of their ability to meet the full costs of their education.
Far Above … The Campaign for Cornell is allowing the university to ease the burden
of student debt or, in many cases, erase it altogether. As a consequence, more students can afford to choose Cornell and to go wherever their ambitions lead them after graduation.
It's a difference worth making.
Stephen Ashley '62, MBA '64, Campaign Co-Chair
Jan Rock Zubrow '77, Campaign Co-Chair
Robert J. Appel '53, Chairman, the Campaign for Weill Cornell Medical College
Stephen Ashley
Jan Rock Zubrow
Robert J. Appel