Undergraduate Education

The UNC Writing and Learning Center provides a variety of services to help students excel, including personalized academic coaching tailored to your needs. We also offer peer tutoring, group workshops, and online resources that help students with everything from test prep to STEM courses.

Maximizing Success for All Tar Heels

Michael Stutts ’02 is dedicated to building awareness of the Writing and Learning Center’s comprehensive services and “leveling the playing field” by helping all students regardless of academic level or background.

Students and faculty at the 9th Annual AAAD Undergraduate Research Conference

African, African American and Diaspora Studies Creates Excellence Fund in Honor of Eunice Sahle

The endowment will ensure the department has resources to sustain creative scholarly opportunities for students and faculty alike.

A student in the Triple-I course, “Health and Happiness,” piloted in spring 2019. Each Triple-I course brings together three outstanding professors from different departments across the university so that students can study a common theme from several perspectives. Triple-I is part of the First Year Foundations requirement of the new IDEAs in Action curriculum. (photo by Donn Young)

Supporting the New Undergraduate General Education Curriculum

Thanks to a recent gift from donors Justin ’94 and Emily Haynie ’96, whose son is a current Tar Heel, the College is able to implement this more structured first-year experience.

Barbara Fredrickson, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Social Psychology, leads the “Health and Happiness” class in a discussion. (photo by Donn Young)

Preparing Graduates to Become Lifelong Learners

Donations to the Arts and Sciences Fund play a critical role in funding the College of Arts and Sciences’ highest priorities — enhancing student engagement, recruiting and retaining faculty, deepening academic excellence and providing a global curriculum.

Morehead-Cain Alumni Distinguished Professor Geoff Sayre-McCord, the founding director of the program

Investing in Faculty, Students and Programs Through Leadership and Philanthropy

“We are committed to the idea of exposing students to the work of free-market thinkers; and the PPE Program, by its very nature, does this well, while also exposing students to the critics of, and alternatives to, free markets,” said the Langmans. “This is an incredibly enriching program at Carolina

Students in the Summer Bridge program pose for a portrait with Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz on July 25, 2022, at the Old Well on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Building a Bridge to Success at Carolina

Summer Bridge is a six-week transition program that is designed to ease participants’ personal and academic transition from high school to Carolina. The program is open to all admitted incoming first-year students from North Carolina.

The Monk family’s gift will support students serving in internships in eastern North Carolina and students from that region participating in internships elsewhere. Multiple generations of the family are represented in this photo. (photo courtesy of the Monk family)

Connecting the University and Eastern North Carolina

The Monk family’s love of home and university led them to give back to Carolina and their home region of eastern North Carolina through the Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship’s Monk Family Internship Fund.

PlayMakers’ fall 2021 production of The Skin of Our Teeth featured Ray Dooley (right) in his final performance as a PlayMakers Company member.

The Power of Discretionary Funding

In his years working as head of a boarding school in New Jersey, T. Chandler “Chan” Hardwick ’75 learned firsthand the importance of having discretionary funding to fulfill his responsibilities and achieve his goals.

Video: Groundbreaking Discovery

The Lori and Eric Sklut Undergraduate Experiential Learning Fund provides eager students with opportunities to venture outside of the classroom through study abroad and faculty-mentored research.

Graduate students perform research on local living shorelines through the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences. (photo by Mary Lide Parker)

The Cross-Pollination of Science at Carolina

Margaret and Tillman Cooley, B.S. ’65 (Ph.D. ’70) support the department of earth, marine, and environmental sciences at Carolina. “Synergy is so important, and it works – I know,” said Tillman Cooley. “I’m so excited to see how our UNC scientists cross-pollinate and flourish.”

Jim Lampley Trades Sports Desk For Classroom

As a network sportscaster, Jim Lampley ’71 covered 14 Olympics. Now he teaches students at Carolina the history of broadcast storytelling and how technology shaped it.

Fostering a Global Mindset

“Carolina is a microcosm of the world, and it is important for students to seek out and access as many different backgrounds and cultures as they can,” Michael-Bryant Hicks ’96 said. “I want to take away any number of fears that may prevent a student — who grew up like me — from studying abroad.”

Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, then dean of the College (left), celebrated Alex Yong and Wendi Sturgis’ gift at Carolina’s campaign kickoff in October 2018. The couple’s support benefits scholarships, the Writing and Learning Center and diversity initiatives in the department of computer science. (photo by Jafar Fallahi)

Paying It Forward

“We believe strongly that all college students, no matter their background, should have every resource available to ensure their ultimate success,” said Alex Yong ’90

“I took two classes in San Cristóbal, one on immigration to the United States from Latin America and one on Latin American literature. We traveled to various beaches on the island, several giant tortoise reservations and to Santa Cruz, another island in the archipelago. I told my friends and family that there were so many ‘best parts’ of the trip — the food, the friends I made, the immigration course, the amazing views and weather, my super sweet host family, the friendly citizens of Puerto Baquerizo — I could go on. “The experience opened my eyes to a completely different way of life, while simultaneously making me appreciate the culture and living conditions of the United States. The course on immigration taught me a lot about the violent and desperate conditions that cause Latin Americans to immigrate to the United States. Additionally, it showed me how complex the process of legal immigration is and the various ways in which Latino immigrants are exploited in the United States. Still, despite all these barriers and threats, many choose to immigrate. Learning this from a perspective outside of the U.S. really brought home this idea to me because I was separated from many things that I take for granted in the U.S. I did not expect that through study abroad, I would gain an appreciation for my home country.” - Trevor Pharr ’23, a music and chemistry double major

A Plan and a Partnership

John and Marree Townsend’s commitments to UNC-Chapel Hill over the years have been both plentiful and purposeful — and none more so than their gift to the College of Arts and Sciences to establish the Townsend Family Strategic Initiatives Fund.

The Center for the Study of the American South and the Power of Undergraduate Research

Britney Hong ’24, an American studies and human development and family science double major, received support from the Ferris Undergraduate Research Fund and worked with the Southern Oral History Program in spring 2022.

Members of Honors Carolina Class of 2023 at orientation in August 2019.

Come Here. Go Anywhere.

One of the hallmarks of private support for Honors Carolina is the Go Anywhere initiative, established in 2017 by alumni Chad and Blake Pike, who both graduated in 1993. “The Go Anywhere platform played a critical role in launching my professional journey,” said Matthew Gillespie ’23.

Nehemiah Stewart ’21, alum of the Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship

Changing Life Trajectories

The Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship empowers students to turn ideas and inspiration into action and thanks to the transformational support of the Shuford family, this undergraduate entrepreneurship program has doubled in size.

Leve and cultural heritage activist Alina Tamrakar interview the resident monk at Deva Dharma Mahavihar, a Buddhist monastery located in front of the stupa. (photo by Alok Tamrakar)

Ellison Family Fund and Buddhism Educational Opportunities Fund support scholar’s Nepali 3D imaging project

As an Ellison Family Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Arts and Humanities, Religious studies scholar Lauren Leve was given “a rare opportunity that came at a critical time for me professionally.”

The Legacy of Ishna J. Hall

The Ishna J. Hall Excellence Fund, established by Greer and Bryan Pope, honors Hall’s dedication to empowering young women and underrepresented minorities at Carolina by funding study abroad experiences for undergraduates.

(From left to right) Rita Hanes ’89, Jim Tanner ’90 and Pam Parker ’90, all Arts and Sciences Foundation Board of Directors and Arts and Sciences Fund donors, celebrate the College’s success in the Campaign for Carolina.

The Power of Unrestricted Support

Pam Parker ’90, a current member of the Arts and Sciences Foundation Board of Directors, appreciates the value of unrestricted giving and especially its role in flexibly meeting the needs of talented students and acclaimed faculty.

Preparing the Future Scientists of Tomorrow

“A lot of students of color and minorities in STEM can slip through the cracks,” Paloma Ruiz ’22 said. “More than anything, I think the Chancellor’s Science Scholars shows students like me that we belong in science, and we deserve to be here.”

An Affordable and Accessible Place for All

“This scholarship will help me graduate with an undergraduate degree debt-free. As a low-income student, the generosity of others helping me means the world to me,” said Moise Scholarship recipient Mariah Waters ’23, an exercise and sport science major.

Modern Jewish History Through Student Travel

In 2021, Oskar Czendze, a Ph.D. candidate in history, received an award from the Frances Carol Eizenstat Travel Fund to conduct research in Poland and Ukraine.

Pillar of Chapel Hill Community Leaves Gift to College’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Efforts

Robert E. Seymour Jr. was a champion of social justice who led a congregation that challenged racial segregation and advocated on behalf of the aged and poor. Seymour died in 2020 at age 95, leaving a gift in his estate to the College of Arts and Sciences.

Director’s Fund for Excellence in Latin American Studies

An anonymous donor established the Director’s Fund for Excellence in Latin American Studies — a fund that provides resources to the Institute for the Study of the Americas for faculty and student support, course development, summer internships and public lectures.

Southern Voices, Future Leaders

“Undergraduate students are walking onto our campus with a voice, with ideas, with a set of commitments to their communities,” said Elizabeth Engelhardt. “During the time that they’re here, our job is to help them focus their voice to become that future leader in the South.”