The mission of the KU Honors Program is to challenge students to launch extraordinary lives—but this past year and the COVID-19 pandemic have yielded extraordinary circumstances for all of us. Though the 2020-2021 academic year has been anything but typical, the truth is that even in a typical year, there are myriad reasons students might encounter financial difficulty that threatens to prevent or delay them from completing their degree and the KU Honors curriculum.
Establishing an emergency fund is an important contribution to the University Honors Program’s practice of holistic support and will continue its efforts to improve access and equity.
For these reasons, we have established the Honors Emergency Fund, which will be used to provide support for students with unexpected financial need in the Honors Program at the University of Kansas. Emergency aid provides a grant to assist eligible Honors students who are experiencing a small, unforeseen emergency or crisis—including but not limited to food insecurity or housing displacement. This support will help students who encounter financial difficulties to persist in earning their degree.
Your support can go even further today thanks to the generosity of Jeff and Carol Stowell, who are providing a 2:1 match for all gifts $10 and under, and a 1:1 match for gifts more than $10, for the KU Honors Program Emergency Fund, up to $25,000! Please see the right rail for more details.
Your support today will ensure that Honors students will not be overwhelmed by financial emergencies, and will help Honors students in need launch extraordinary lives—even during extraordinary circumstances and times.
*Image shows Honors student Ivonne Pineda, ‘22 from Tegucigalpa, Honduras majoring in finance and international business, who is a facilitator of Honors Community Connect, a program launched during the pandemic to connect incoming students with current Honors students.
