For Baltimore philanthropists Robert and Jane Meyerhoff, the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program was a way to invest in the future of science. For UMBC, the program was a launching pad into a new era.

No UMBC program to date has garnered as much national attention and praise as the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program, which was described as a model for minority education in a New York Times editorial.

UMBC is now one of the leading producers of African-American undergraduates who go on to earn doctorates in the sciences and engineering. Almost 300 alumni are in graduate and professional programs at prestigious schools including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Berkeley.

“The amount of success that the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program at UMBC has realized couldn’t have happened at a private university with only one or two students,” Robert Meyerhoff says. “It’s important for minority students to feel a sense of belonging, to have a tightly knit family, to feel proud of each other and help each other. Students get that at UMBC.”

Not only did the founding of the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program awaken the academic community to the pressing need to encourage minority representation in the sciences, it proved to UMBC the role that philanthropic support could play in shaping the University’s future. In 1988, the Meyerhoffs’ $500,000 gift to create the scholarship program was the largest private gift ever made to the University, and it carved the path for future philanthropic support. The Meyerhoffs have continued their commitment to UMBC by building an endowment of nearly $5 million for the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program, as well as serving as honorary co-chairs of The Campaign for UMBC.