With a $25 million grant from Koch Industries and the Charles Koch Foundation in 2014, the UNCF/Koch Scholars Program was established in partnership with the United Negro College Fund. Each year, the Scholar Program supports students with scholarships, mentoring and networking opportunities through online discussions and an annual summit. At the summit, scholars attend sessions to explore how the principles of entrepreneurship can improve lives, communities and society. From an inaugural class of a few dozen to now more than 340 scholars in just four years, the scholarship has enabled hundreds of students from across the country to envision a better world, enterprising their own solutions for today’s problems and discovering tomorrow’s opportunities.
“It is a transformational experience, which each student owns,” UNCF President Michael Lomax says. “They are the entrepreneurs of their own lives.”