HAMDEN, CT– Quinnipiac University has announced a new fundraising campaign, which is the first in the University’s history.
“For the Ambitious…A Campaign for the Next Century” was launched Saturday afternoon in a brief speech given by university President Judy Olian at a Bobcat Weekend event.
“This afternoon I am asking each of you to join us as we continue to build our future with the support, assistance, engagement, and energy of all of you. We will take Quinnipiac into our next century,” said Olian.
The new campaign aims towards alumni and parents with the vision to increase donations to the university. This helps admissions provide more scholarships for incoming students while enhancing the university.
The ultimate goal is for Quinnipiac to raise $160 million to support key priorities. This includes building student funding, creating innovative programs, improving faculty excellence and leadership, and investing in capital projects.
Through the campaign, people will be able to donate to the University through the alumni office.
Nick Wormley the vice president for development alumni affairs at Quinnipiac talked to student media in an exclusive interview.
“What we [alumni affairs] are ready to do is engage people in that philanthropic process of, what did you have as an experience as a student? Or what is your student having an experience that you want to philanthropy support?” Wormley said.
Wormley hopes the fundraising campaign will help make education more financially accessible.
“We have to be a school that makes it easier for students to come here through scholarships. We need to be a school that’s providing the resources to our professors, to our staff members to provide that better experience.”
The new campaign stemmed from Quinnipiac’s founding under ambition. According to Wormley, Quinnipiac was founded when 11 students asked a professor from Yale University to found the college in 1929; “That’s that ambitiousness that this student population has always had,” expressed Wormley.
“It’s just a really easy theme for us to get behind because we have that little chip on our shoulder to say we want to be PTS, we want to be nurses, we want to be in finance, we want to be in communications.”
Quinnipiac will allocate funds to various prioritized categories to strengthen the university entirely.
“We really look at our students to really figure out what they want to become. And when you look at innovative programming, you look at scholarship, you look at providing professors opportunities to teach you that next generational future-forward thinking, where the university wants to make sure we’re providing the service to our students to become best in our community, best in the classroom, best in the office as soon as they get there.”
When asked how the university will remain a prestigious class, Wormley explained the potential additional financial aid offerings. This allows admissions offices to admit the best students.
“When you have opportunities to offer more scholarships, you certainly allow the opportunity to find the best-qualified students for Quinnipiac. You don’t have to look at [their] economic background, you don’t have to look at where they’re coming from. You look at the opportunity for that student to be successful here because we have that opportunity to provide those scholarships.”
Wormley says that he hopes the campaign makes Quinnipiac everyone’s first-choice university.
“This campaign is really going to drive that opportunity for our alumni to continue to provide that experience to the students and continue to make sure that Quinnipiac is people’s number one’s choice to get a great education,” said Wormley.
