Gifts to the Arts and Sciences Fund play a crucial role in funding our highest priorities — recruiting and retaining faculty, enhancing student engagement, deepening academic excellence and achieving global impact. This support helps shape the experience of every student in the College. Learn more.

Merit-based scholarships. Merit-based scholarships are a high priority for the University and the College. They allow Carolina to recruit and support the top students from North Carolina and the nation — students who stimulate the intellectual climate and play a critical role in Carolina’s quest to become the nation’s leading public university.

• The Carolina Scholars Program is a comprehensive academic scholarship program designed to attract the most qualified students from across the state and around the nation. The program provides students with substantial scholarship support, faculty mentoring and social programming opportunities, including automatic participation in Honors Carolina.

Need-based scholarships. Need-based scholarships ensure that no academically qualified student is denied the opportunity to study at Carolina because of inadequate financial resources. These scholarships also provide the campus with a more diverse student body.

Study Abroad scholarships. One of the College’s highest priorities is to encourage more students to spend a semester or year studying abroad. Higher expenses related to transportation, food and tuition often exclude students who depend on financial aid, which is limited for study abroad.

• Carolina Covenant Study Abroad scholarships provide financial assistance to study abroad for academically capable students whose financial need qualifies them for the Carolina Covenant Scholarship Program.
• Study Abroad scholarships provide students with life-changing international study and learning opportunities that can last from a few weeks in the summer through an entire academic year.

Summer Bridge and Carolina Firsts. The College’s Center for Student Success seeks to ensure the success of all UNC undergraduates through programs that support and mentor them.

Graduate Student Excellence Funds. Graduate Student Excellence Funds enable the College to compete successfully for the best and brightest graduate students by leveraging state-funded stipends to raise the total fellowship award available to top students. Graduate students are vital to the recruitment and retention of top faculty and to the University’s reputation as one of the nation’s premier research and teaching institutions.

Summer Enhancement Fellowships. These provide stipend and summer support or travel and research monies to graduate students. Dissertation fellowships provide valuable support to graduate students as they research and write their dissertations.

Professorships. Professorships enable Carolina to recruit, retain and support outstanding faculty. These endowed funds supplement faculty salaries as well as provide support for course development, research, graduate assistants and equipment.

• Eminent Professorships create and support new faculty positions for teacher-scholars who are highly acclaimed in their fields.
• Professorships recruit rising stars or retain outstanding faculty members whose growing prominence is attracting the notice of other institutions.

Postdoctoral Fellowships. Postdoctoral fellowships enable science departments to recruit research associates who are at the most productive stage in their careers to research projects led by senior faculty. They thereby assist these departments in recruiting and retaining superlative teacher-scholars.

Visiting Professorships. Distinguished visiting scholars, writers and artists contribute to the Carolina intellectual environment by bringing new perspectives and experiences to complement the expertise of the College’s permanent faculty.

Institute for the Arts and Humanities Fellowships. Fellowships allow faculty from various disciplines to devote a semester away from the classroom to learn from each other in special seminars and to return to teaching with new perspectives and a renewed commitment to teaching. To learn more, please visit the IAH website.

Dean’s Academic Leadership Funds. Academic Leadership Funds enable the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences to support department chairs and program directors as they work to recruit and retain outstanding faculty.

Faculty Excellence Funds. These highly sought gifts demonstrate Carolina’s commitment to maintaining a world-class faculty by providing crucial non-salary support to faculty for a variety of teaching and scholarly needs, including research assistants, travel and the acquisition of special archival and database materials.

Departmental Excellence Funds. Departmental funds provide needed resources to chairs, enabling them to recognize the work of faculty and provide exceptional learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.

The Chancellor’s Science Scholars Program encourages talented students to explore their STEM interests at a world-class research university, while engaging them in a small community filled with collaboration and inspiration. Along the way, they strengthen the critical skills needed to become the next generation of leaders in science and technology fields and build a lasting network of support.

Executive Director. Endowing and naming the executive director position provides critically needed monies to support the work of the Chancellor’s Sciences Scholars Program in recruiting, teaching and mentoring students.

Chancellor’s Science Scholarships. Merit-based scholarships support students throughout their four years at Carolina.

Chancellor’s Science Scholars Excellence Fund. An excellence fund enables the director to support the most pressing and strategic needs, including research, experiential learning and other co-curricular opportunities.

Summer Internships and Mentored Research Fellowships. Providing Scholars with stipends enables them to participate in hands-on experiences that prepare them for further learning and careers after Carolina.

The O.B. Hardison Scholarship celebrates and emphasizes the value of the humanities and serves as the first step toward the ambitious goal to raise $100 million to elevate and secure the future of the humanities at UNC-Chapel Hill. This includes support for distinguished professorships, graduate student fellowships and curriculum development grants, as well as additional funding for the Hardison Scholarship. To make a gift to the O.B. Hardison Scholarship for the Humanities please visit go.unc.edu/hardison.

Support the THRIVE Program’s work to support veterans and first responders suffering from TBIs. Give now.

The Center for Student Success enables students to develop the skills and strategies needed to prosper academically, socially and professionally while at Carolina and after graduation. Through integrated and comprehensive approaches, the Center fosters equal access to success across student populations through several programs:

The Learning Center offers academic coaching, peer tutoring, ADHD/LD support, STEM support and more through face-to-face and online coaching as well as a collection of online resources, study groups and workshops for students and educators.

The Writing Center offers writing assistance on any project at any point in the writing process as well as popular tips and tools on its website. One-on-one appointments and group workshops are available.

The Carolina Firsts Program helps first-generation college students — who represent 20% of all undergraduate students — navigate the college experience, celebrate successes and make meaningful connections along the way.

Summer Bridge offers incoming students, many from small or rural high schools, a six-week residential academic program. Summer Bridge enables students to begin their first semester with college credit and a sense of the cultural, professional and recreational activities at Carolina.

Peer Mentoring assists in the academic, social and personal development of students, fostering holistic student growth and achievement.
Transfer Student Services support our transfer student population through academic coaching and peer support programs tailored to the transfer student experience.

Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowships. Undergraduate research fellowships enhance students’ classroom experiences by enabling them to work closely with faculty in a focused area. In-depth research also provides important preparation for many careers, as well as for graduate school.

Honors Carolina. Ranked among the top programs in the country, Honors Carolina makes a promise to students, “Come Here. Go Anywhere.” Funding needs include:

• Honors Carolina Scholarships. Endowing a scholarship is a direct investment in academic excellence. The scholarships connect remarkable students with distinguished faculty and committed alumni who serve as mentors.
• Honors Carolina Go Anywhere Initiative. The goal is to develop a new model that connects academic advising and career services to prepare students for lives of purpose and consequence. This includes programming, alumni networking and mentoring events, and professional development workshops.
• Honors Internship Stipends. Enable deserving students to gain invaluable work experience that will prepare them for successful employment or post-graduate study.
• Honors Study Abroad Scholarships. Ensure that Honors Study Abroad is available to all students, regardless of financial need. Recent programs have been in London, Rome, Cape Town, Chile, Ghana and Thailand.
• Honors Summer Research Fellowships. Provide students with the opportunity to work with a faculty mentor during the summer.

To learn more, please visit Honors Carolina’s website.

Dean’s Innovation Funds. Dean’s innovation funds provide critically needed support for new, emerging disciplines that apply theoretical knowledge to solve real-world problems, such as the College’s new departments of biomedical engineering and applied physical sciences, its highly recognized minor in entrepreneurship, and BeAM, its cutting-edge makers’ space for faculty and students.

Learning Innovation Funds. Learning innovation funds support new learning and teaching initiatives that cut across disciplines and potentially affect how learning occurs across the College. Among other things, these funds support new student-centered, academic success pedagogies, course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) and general education curriculum revisions and updates, such as the new ideas, information and inquiry (Triple I) courses.

Departmental Lectureships. Lectureships enable academic departments and curricula to bring nationally and internationally acclaimed scholars to campus to address issues at the forefront of intellectual discussion and debate.