Current and Special Giving Initiatives

Scholarships

Annual Named Scholarships

To prepare our students to be tomorrow’s leaders, our financial aid program continually stretches to meet the financial needs of students so that their choice to attend Harvey Mudd is possible, regardless of their ability to pay. Annual Named Scholarships (ANS) provide critical financial support and can be created with a recurring gift of $10,000 or more. When you establish a scholarship, you have the opportunity to name your scholarship and receive scholarship impact reports annually with details of the specific student that you are supporting, along with personal notes from your scholar.

President’s Scholar Program

Learn more about the President’s Scholars Program opportunities.

Endowed Student Scholarships/Endowed Class Scholarships

Learn more about endowed student and class scholarship opportunities.

Commemorative/Named Scholarships

Scholarships may be created to commemorate or honor the lives of people who are/were special to the College, to a particular class or group of classes, or simply to the donor making the donation. These scholarships can be established in a variety of ways, but are typically created as endowed scholarships through the donation of a minimum commitment of $50,000. The endowed gift is invested by the College and the investment returns each year fund the scholarship. These scholarships may also be created through annual gifts each year at the $10,000 minimum funding level.

Summer Research

Summer Research at HMC

Since the College’s founding, the faculty and students have embraced hands-on, collaborative learning across the curriculum. High-impact opportunities provided through undergraduate research, internships, service learning and independent study projects naturally build on our intensive academic program. These opportunities immerse our students in the type of real-world problem solving rarely seen at the undergraduate level. They explore important challenges with their faculty colleagues, they publish their findings in leading scholarly and academic research journals, and they share their work with fellow researchers at conferences around the world. As a result, career pathways are discovered, reinforced, or redefined as students gain confidence and experience and find more direct paths to leadership in their chosen fields. With continued success (currently involving nearly 200 students each summer) and increasing student interest, we are unable to support all students who are qualified to participate. In addition, most current funding comes through faculty research grants, and this is often restricted and unstable. Therefore, additional private support is critical to growing and stabilizing this program, thus maximizing these opportunities for our students. One way to support this program is through an expendable gift that would support a student and their faculty mentor. A gift of $10,000 would nearly or fully cover a 10-week base stipend for a student, a faculty mentor, and a modest discretionary account for lab supplies and any travel to conferences. The College will provide an update of your recipient, including details about the specific student supported and the work they are doing at the College.

Summer Salary Support for HMC Faculty Mentoring Research Students

These funds provide stipend support for faculty members conducting summer research programs for students, many of which receive no additional funding through grant support. These faculty members and students rely on this summer salary support so that they can continue their research and academic scholarship. Funds also provide additional resources to help faculty purchase software, reference materials and other supplies needed to pursue their work.

Recent Special Initiatives

AABOG Curricular Innovation Fund – Faculty Support

The AABOG Curricular Innovation Fund was funded initially by gifts from current and former governors in celebration of AABOG’s 200th meeting. The fund supports the maintenance of academic excellence by providing grants to faculty for developing new courses, revising existing courses and exploring innovative teaching methods. Expenditures from the fund’s proceeds will be managed by faculty leadership, and the intention is for the fund to grow indefinitely through contributions from alumni and friends of the College.

The Scott A. McGregor Computer Science Center – Campus/Facilities

The McGregor Computer Science Center provides much-needed additional space for the Department of Computer Science along with ground-floor makerspace, the first permanent makerspace at the College. Computer science (students majoring in some form of CS) now rivals engineering as one of the most popular majors on campus, and the number of non-HMC students taking courses and majoring in CS at HMC has tripled. Construction of the new academic facility will help offset this demand by creating room to grow from 16 to 25 faculty positions over time and will include faculty offices, Clinic and project studios, teaching and research laboratories and collaboration spaces. The larger space dedicated for computing will allow us to create more contiguous CS space, bringing together previously fragmented elements such as student project space, Clinic Program work areas and computer labs. There are still naming opportunities available within the new building, and there are also options for donating equipment and other resources to the makerspace.

Emmanuel Fund for Preventative Mental Health – Division of Student Affairs

The Emmanuel Fund was established by an alumna from the Class of ’97 to provide flexible funding for the Division of Student Affairs programs, particularly preventative health initiatives, co-curricular programming and community engagement related programming.
Challenge: 1:1 match up to $25,000

Homework Hotline – DSA

The College recently received a donation to support the 10-year-old Homework Hotline program. The program provides free over the phone tutoring support to students in grades 4 through 12 five nights per week, Sunday through Thursday. Additional endowed and annual funding support is needed to provide ongoing support for this important community engagement program.