CAPITAL IMPACT
Double Match Creates New UMKC Student Success and Mentorship Hub
BY: STACY DOWNS
Rendering of the central entrance to the fourth floor, showing a classroom, modular seating and desks, and a corridor of study room entrances.
Matching grants from the Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation and a trust established by the late Victor Wilson provide donors with an opportunity to triple the impact of gifts to student success renovations.
Thanks to the generosity of our donors, the fourth floor of the Miller Nichols Library will house all the key services to support academic success of current students.
The renovated floor will include programs currently housed in various locations on campus, giving students a single location to access the programs.
These updates will include the UMKC-founded and internationally known Supplemental Instruction, as well as other UMKC signature programs: the Peer Academic Leader (PAL) Program, First Gen Roo Scholars, Men of Color Academy and Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship.
These important renovations are thanks in large part to two gifts, one from the Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation given last year, and the other from Victor Wilson from more than a half-century ago.
The Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation, established in 1992, has a decades-long tradition of philanthropy with the university, including in support of its namesake Miller Nichols Library and Learning Center. Miller Nichols (1911-2000) served as a UMKC Trustee for 30 years and helped lead the effort to acquire land for the university, increasing the Volker Campus from 75 to 225 acres. The Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation continues to allow UMKC to make the library a special resource for students, the community and the region.
The Victor Wilson Trust Fund established a scholarship in 1948 through a bequest to UMKC, then called the University of Kansas City, as part of the will of Wilson, president of the Ryley-Wilson Grocery Co. in Kansas City. Wilson, motivated by a desire to make higher education accessible to the youth of Kansas City, established the trust to provide scholarships to Kansas Citians attending Yale University and UMKC. In 2023, after 75 years, the fund was to be dissolved with the assets to benefit UMKC. A portion will be used to ensure student success through the renovation project, a fitting tribute to Wilson’s passion for making higher education accessible and affordable.
These decades-long traditions of supporting UMKC students have come together to create a double match for gifts to the fourth-floor renovation project, which is expected to open to students in the Fall 2025 Semester. Gifts will be matched on a 3:1 basis until the match funding, initiated by a $2 million grant from the Miller Nichols Charitable Foundation, and funding from the Victor Wilson Trust is exhausted.
CAPITAL IMPACT
Student Success Programs in the Renovated Space
Bloch Scholars This program supports students with a determination to succeed despite their finances, test scores or life circumstances.
First Gen Roo Scholars The mission of the First Gen Roo Scholars program is to strive to build a supportive, energetic and inclusive community to enrich first-generation students’ experiences at UMKC. In 2023, the national organization FirstGen Forward designated UMKC as a FirstGen Forward Network Leader. That same year, UMKC students who completed the First Gen Roo program earned a 3.38 GPA, outperforming not only their first-gen peers who did not participate in the program but all first-time college students. In addition, those First Gen Roos had a first-to-second semester retention rate of more than 95%, compared to 88% of non-participating first-gen students.
KC Scholars UMKC and KC Scholars partner to support students from the Kansas City area by removing barriers to earning a college degree.
Men of Color Academy (MoCA) Nationally, students of color are more likely than their white peers to consider dropping out of college. A 2022 Lumina Foundation-Gallup study found 50% of Hispanic students and 40% of Black students found it difficult to remain in their program. MoCA, started in 2023, is a UMKC chancellor initiative focused on retention and graduation rates. Students attend monthly programs, perform community service, get involved on campus and meet with success coaches. MoCA retained 97% of its students all except one, who transferred to another institution from Spring 2024 to Fall 2024. The average GPA for Fall 2023 was 2.98, and this rose to 3.02 for Spring 2024 with the addition of nine new members.
PAL Program The Peer Academic Leader Program is a campuswide peer mentor program for UMKC undergraduate students. Incoming students are connected to a dedicated PAL as they begin their studies who connect them with resources to create personal and academic prosperity.
Supplemental Instruction (SI) In 1973, UMKC invented SI, a student-led group learning approach to help people in historically challenging courses — those with a high number of Ds, Fs and withdrawals — and it has been proven to boost letter grades. UMKC has trained faculty and staff from more than 1,500 institutions, including other universities in Missouri and Kansas, from 34 countries around the world.
Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship Since 2000, UMKC has been offering undergraduate students financial support to pursue projects under the mentorship of faculty members. Students pursue new knowledge in the field of their choice and get the opportunity to present their findings in a variety of public forums.
Writing Studio Free services are available to undergraduate and graduate students, assisting them with all aspects of writing, from class assignments to personal projects.