On May 10, 2022, I publicly announced the close of our tremendously successful Blue & Gold Campaign for Students. I am so pleased to share that we raised over $211-million enabling us to offer life-changing opportunities for many students, including those from under-represented communities, through financial support, awards and experiential learning opportunities
Students are at the heart of all that we do. When I first came to UBC, I wanted to make it a priority to enhance the student experience and ensure that more promising students would have the financial help they needed to access a UBC education. This thinking evolved into the Blue & Gold Campaign for Students—the most extensive fundraising campaign for students in the university’s 110-year history. Some may have thought this was an overly ambitious goal for a new president entering his second year, but I believed that our donors were as eager as I was to make a lasting impact on the lives of UBC students and our community. I couldn’t be happier to have been proven right!
The generosity of donors truly inspires me. More than 21,000 gifts were received in support of undergraduate and graduate students at both the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses. Further, the Centennial Indigenous Scholars Entrance Award and the Beyond Tomorrow Scholars Award helped create a campus more reflective of Canada’s diversity.
The Blue & Gold Campaign was about investing in today’s students to help them grow into the researchers, thinkers and change-makers who will shape a better world. When this campaign started in 2017, we landed on a phrase that captured this sentiment: “Change their world so they can change ours.” So, as we wrap up the Blue & Gold Campaign for Students, I’d like to say to donors, “You changed their world. Now watch them change ours.”
View the Blue & Gold Campaign for Students Impact Report.
Santa J. Ono
President and Vice-Chancellor