Invest In Me

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Help us make a college education accessible for all VCU students

The Invest in Me scholarship initiative is dedicated to raising funds to support our students. Scholarships that reward excellence and achievement. Scholarships that open doors to opportunity and eliminate barriers to access. Scholarships that nurture talent across every field, whether in the performing arts, athletics, leadership, math or engineering.

These students are the doctors, job creators, engineers, social workers, dentists and artists – the changemakers – of tomorrow.

Invest in them. Your support today is an investment not just in their future but in all of our futures. Read more.

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Opportunity

“With my goal of working in underprivileged areas here and abroad, every scholarship dollar is one that I don’t have to worry about paying back through a loan and is therefore a dollar I can give back to the community through donated dental care. Those dollars directly affect my ability to give care to patients in need.”

Clay May

School of Dentistry, Class of 2020

Meet Clay

Opportunity

"Coursework has always been easy for me, but I struggled with finances. When I was about to start my junior year, my family wasn’t able to take out student loans. Scholarships are the only reason I’m still here. It feels like someone is saying, ‘I know this is hard, and I’m so proud of you for doing it.'"

Giovanni Knight

School of Business, Class of 2020

Meet Giovanni

Glynis Boyd Hughes sitting at a table in a library, holding a pen on a notebook.

Opportunity

“My scholarships enable me to meet my obligation to VCU and to work fewer hours a week, which gives me more time to study and to be involved in student life. The money, of course, is helpful, but to me, getting a scholarship is somebody investing in you because they believe in what education can do.”

Glynis Boyd Hughes

College of Humanities and Sciences, Class of 2020

Meet Glynis

Opportunity

“I already had an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s in education. It was a hard decision to go back to college, but I found something I am passionate about. I didn’t want to spend money on myself; I have three children to put through college. How are we going to pay for that, let alone pay for me?”

Stephanie Cattie

School of Nursing, Class of 2020

Meet Stephanie

Opportunity

“I want to be an accomplished chemist, which means doing research that will improve the safety of the citizenry in this time of terrorism. So far, I am learning vital skills at VCU that place me on course to realize this dream. My scholarship makes me feel as if someone is recognizing what I’m doing.”

Derrick Ampadu-Boateng

College of Humanities and Sciences, Class of 2020

Meet Derrick

Opportunity

“Having to work full time and raise a child on top of that has been quite a challenge, but my scholarship is helping me hang in there. It does something for your spirit to have someone believe in you so much that they financially invest in you. That vote of confidence was not something I had anticipated.”

Van Vox (B.S.’11/H&S)

School of Social Work

Meet Van

Excellence

“Without the Weinberg Scholarship, I wouldn’t have been able to graduate with two degrees in three years and be so engaged in extracurriculars. It’s very nice to dream a dream, but to be able to achieve it, you need help. And the scholarship made that dream possible.”

Sneha Krish (B.A.’19/H&S; B.S.’19/H&S)

Meet Sneha

Excellence

“Getting a scholarship was the most incredible feeling of security, which I didn’t always have in my life. It’s important to me that people don’t give out of pity but because they know I’m out here working my hardest to gain an education so that, in the future, I can help people just as I was helped.”

Tabbitha Bruck

School of Pharmacy, Class of 2021

Meet Tabbitha

Excellence

"Figuring out what factors are important in choosing a specialty has been a pretty steep learning curve, and the prospect of student debt is this ominous feeling that’s constantly in the back of my mind. Getting a scholarship has been a really big blessing. It’s a good reminder that I’m here to help as many patients as possible."

Aidan Morrell

School of Medicine, Class of 2021

Meet Aidan

Excellence

“I wanted to understand the problems older adults face and how we can improve their lives. A lot of students are working nights and weekends to make ends meet, but I was able to use that time to focus more on community outreach. It felt like someone was looking out for me even though they had never met me before.”

Alexa van Aartrijk (M.S.’19/HP)

College of Health Professions

Meet Alexa

Excellence

“Wherever you go, you end up with the same degree, but how you get that degree and the people who shape you — that’s really important to me. I’m passionate about making sure that the future of health care is extremely collaborative. I chose VCU because it has a medical school, a dental school, a nursing school, a PT school all at one university.”

Jeff Warner

College of Health Professions, Class of 2020

Meet Jeff

Excellence

“The financial burden of medical school can put pressure on a student to pick a high-paying specialty not because they’re passionate about it but because they have debt to pay off. That takes away from the sacredness of the job. My goal is to become the best physician I can be, whatever field I choose.”

Shivam Gulhar (B.S.’17/H&S)

School of Medicine, Class of 2021

Meet Shivam

Talent

“The scholarships helped me afford to travel for interviews. The more interviews I go to, the higher my chances of matching into a top cardiac surgery residency. Each program only takes one or two people per year, so if I didn’t have the financial means to attend those interviews, I would have been hugely disadvantaged.”

Armita Kabirpour

School of Medicine, Class of 2020

Meet Armita

Talent

“I think ideas and words have the power to change the world. I want to write stories to make things better for people that I’ve never met. It’s the same kind of feeling that scholarship donors have; they donate not knowing who will receive that scholarship, but they know it’s going to someone who needs it.”

Maryum Elnasseh

College of Humanities and Sciences, Class of 2020

Meet Maryum

Talent

"The money allowed me to purchase loggers that can measure the tide with high precision. I was studying how stocks of carbon in wetland soil are impacted by tidal changes, and I wouldn’t have been able to without them. My ultimate goal is climate-change mitigation. This shows that there are others out there who care about my work."

Ellen Stuart-Haentjens (Ph.D.’19/LS)

Meet Ellen

Mario Sequeira Quesada wearing a VCU Soccer T-shirt and goalkeepr gloves. Holding a soccer ball at his side.

Talent

“Leaving everything I knew behind to come to VCU was hard. I'm proud that I joined the VCU men’s soccer team. I am helping to build a better program not only for the guys here right now but also the guys coming in the future. I’m showing the Latino community that opportunities like this are possible for us.”

Mario Sequeira Quesada

Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture in the College of Humanities and Sciences, Class of 2020

Meet Mario

Talent

“I never had to worry about paying the rent on time or if I was going to be able to eat that week. The peace of mind helped me focus on my academics more, so I can in turn focus on my career. When I finish my Ph.D., I want to teach and research game design and artificial intelligence at VCU.”

Megan Charity (B.S.’19/En)

College of Engineering

Meet Megan

Talent

“Seeing people receive help from their families or support circles and knowing that I don’t have that can be hard. It makes me question if I should be doing this. I'm trying to figure things out as I go along. If I want help, it’s a lot of knocking on doors and saying, ‘Hey, what help is available to me?’”

Zaiendae Smith

School of the Arts, Class of 2021

Meet Zaiendae