University Of Chicago Gets $50 Million For Low-Income Students From VC
By Mae Rice in News on Feb 17, 2016 4:52PM
A San Francisco venture capitalist has given University of Chicago $50 million to run programs and initiatives for low-income students, the New York Times reports.
Slated to be announced Wednesday, the donation will go towards two University of Chicago programs in particular, according to the Times: the Odyssey Scholarship, for enrolled University of Chicago students, and the Collegiate Scholars Program, for high school students gearing up for college.
The donor in question is Michael Moritz, chairman of Sequoia Capital, made the donation with his wife, Harriet Heyman—an alumna of University of Chicago. Moritz’s venture capital firm has worked with Apple, YouTube, and WhatsApp, among other tech world successes.
The Odyssey program—which kicked off in 2007, with a $100 million contribution from a donor who just went by “Homer,” the Times notes—consists of a mix of financial aid and “ academic, social, and career support,” according to the program’s website.
The Collegiate Scholars Program, the Times reports, has 479 alumni so far. Just shy of half of them have gone to University of Chicago, while others have gone on to Ivy League institutions like Princeton.
The new donation will increase the scope of the Odyssey program so that it can cover study abroad and other academic programming, John Boyer, dean of the undergraduate college, told the Times. The new money will also allow for increased enrollment in the Collegiate Scholars Program.