ORLANDO, Fla. — The University of Central Florida is getting the largest donation in its 58-year history.
Mackenzie Scott, philanthropist and the ex-wife of Amazon owner and billionaire Jeff Bezos, is donating $40 million to UCF.
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It’s part of her effort to give more than $2.7 billion to “high impact organizations.”
The university said some of the money will create new programs for students, scholarships for researchers and more.
“It was an extremely emotional moment for me because initially, I didn’t believe it was true,” UCF President Alexander Cartwright said.
Scott broke the news with a tweet leading to a blog post where she wrote, “we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others.”
Amongst the organizations receiving donations are nine universities and 22 colleges that her team decided were “institutions successfully educating students who come from communities that have been chronically underserved.”
At UCF, 19% of undergraduate students are first-generation college students.
The largest gift in UCF’s history will fuel social mobility, student success, academic excellence & faculty research for generations to come👏
— UCF 😷 (@UCF) June 15, 2021
Philanthropists @mackenziescott & Dan Jewett announced a $40 million investment to strengthen proven pathways to opportunity.