OHIO Giving Day

Your support helps Appalachian students realize their dreams of a college education at Ohio University.

Appalachian high school students are forced to decide to accumulate massive debt to attend college or halt their dream of obtaining a college degree. Only 12 percent of Appalachian residents in Ohio have a college degree. Approximately 65 percent of Appalachian high school seniors surveyed stated that finances are a tremendous barrier to attending college.

All gifts matched up to $2,500!

Elizabeth Sayrs, Professor of Music Theory and Executive Vice President and Provost, will be matching all gifts the Appalachian Scholars General Scholarship Fund, up to $2,500. Elizabeth is passionate about the mission of the university: that we hold as our central purpose the personal and intellectual development of all our students, including those from the communities we serve in our Appalachian region.

The Appalachian Scholars Program is a prestigious merit and need-based scholarship program for high school graduates residing in one of the 32 Appalachian counties of Ohio. The program provides scholarship support to students with demonstrated financial need and academic achievement, coupled with the desire and motivation to succeed.

Give today and help change the trajectory of Appalachian students’ lives through an excellent education at OHIO:

• All gifts to this current-use fund are eligible for a dollar-for-dollar match through June 30, 2021, as part of Ohio University’s Current-Use Scholarship Program.
• The program doubles the impact of gifts made to eligible current-use scholarships by amplifying every dollar of donor funds with $1 in funds from the University’s unrestricted financial aid budget.
• This will provide immediate financial help to undergraduate students in the OHIO community. This means your $25 becomes $50, and your $500 becomes $1,000.

Give now to support a student in the Appalachian Scholars Program.

ALUMNI REFLECTIONS

In your time at OHIO, how did the Appalachian Scholars Program support you?

"First and foremost, the financial scholarship meant a lot. It means a lot to kids in Appalachia because we either would have taken out so many loans we couldn’t pay for or we would have gotten so far in our freshman year then dropped out because we realized we couldn’t afford it. They also offered us a book stipend, and books were not something I budgeted for because I was a first-generation college student and I didn’t know to think of that.

"We had Ms. Pat [Bungard] and had a home base of sorts at the OSMAR (Office for Multicultural Student Access and Retention) office. We always had a place to go if we had questions, and they always helped us navigate the University. We also had roundtable discussions that helped teach us etiquette and how to set goals – things you don’t really get in a classroom. Roundtables are still something I think about as very formative. We also had weekly touch bases, and, quite honestly, at the time it felt like an overload of information. But now I’ll do stuff in my job and be like, “Oh my gosh! Mark [my adviser] taught me that!” 

"When I reflect on my experience as an Appalachian Scholar 10 years ago, they got it right. You have to address non-academic barriers to help these scholars succeed in the classroom."

Appalachian Scholar Brittany Miracle, BA ’12, is originally from Guernsery County and studied social work at OHIO. As a student, she interned with Athens County Children Services. Miracle works in Columbus at the Ohio Department of Education as an administrator for child programming. (From Ohio Today News, Appalachian Scholars alumni reflect on OHIO journey, program’s impact)

Give now to support a student in the Appalachian Scholars Program.