Davis United World College Scholars Program

rdf:langString Davis United World College Scholars Program

rdf:langString The Davis United World College Scholars Program is the world’s largest privately funded international scholarship program. It awards need-based scholarship funding, aka the Shelby Davis Scholarship, to graduates of schools and colleges in the United World Colleges (UWC) movement to study at 94 select partner universities in the United States. Shelby Davis co-founded the scholarship program in 2000 along with Phil Geier, former President of UWC-USA. Once UWC graduates enroll in one of the Program's partner U.S. colleges or universities, the Program provides financial support for their undergraduate educations through institutional grants that support need-based scholarships. Originally, the scholarship was offered to students matriculating at one of five colleges in the United States: the College of the Atlantic, Middlebury College, Colby College, Wellesley College and Princeton University. The network of eligible universities has since grown to 95. The scholarship is restricted to students who have completed the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme at one of the 18 schools or colleges in the United World Colleges (UWC) movement. UWC is an educational movement including 18 sixth form colleges (upper-level secondary schools) and full schools located throughout the world that educate international students from 160 countries, with a focus on peace and sustainability. Five years after the program was launched, the Boston Globe wrote "The effects [of the Davis Scholarships] have been dramatic. At Colby, where total enrollment is 1,800, international enrollment jumped from 6 percent to 10 percent in five years. At College of the Atlantic, which has just 265 students, 17 percent come from other countries, up from a handful before the Davis scholarships. At Wellesley and Princeton, international enrollments have grown from 6 percent to 8 percent." More recently, the president of Colby college has said that the program "changed American higher education by making the best colleges and universities available to deserving students from around the world." As of 2020, the program had paid the tuition of over 10,000 students.