UofL’s fully online programs were recognized as some of the top online education for students in the following categories:

• Online bachelor’s
• Online graduate education (specialty ranking of 22 for veterans)
• Online criminal justice (specialty ranking of 12 for veterans)
• Online bachelor’s psychology
• Online engineering
• Online computer information technology

Since 2000, UofL has been offering online degrees and has grown to over 50 online programs and certificates.

“Our students are attracted to our online programs because the online delivery mode allows students access to education in a way that on-campus programs cannot for adults who are often working and raising families,” said Kristen Brown, interim associate provost for Online Learning and Technology. “Our online programs allow part-time enrollment and most are fully asynchronous.”

With fully asynchronous programs available, online students are granted the flexibility to successfully achieve their degree on their own time. UofL’s online programs build a community of care when it comes to adult learners, working professionals, active military, and veterans seeking and succeeding in higher education.

This year, UofL adds two new rankings:

• Online MBA programs (specialty ranking of 29 for veterans)
• Online bachelor’s business (specialty ranking of 38 for veterans)

“Whether it be a global pandemic or a young woman getting killed in your city, it felt like everywhere you turned there was something negative,” Dobbs said. “Because of that, I wanted to look within and see what I could do for people like me and people around me.”

With that idea in mind, Dobbs, a 2019����graduate, and his long-time friend Savon Gray, created��.

Black Business Boxes is a connection between consumers and Black-owned businesses. The focus of the business is to build and sustain wealth in Black communities. A 2018����showed that although African Americans are responsible for around $1.2 trillion in purchases annually.

Black Business Boxes aims to push that spending toward Black-owned businesses in multiple ways. They create “Black Business Boxes,” which is an ever-changing box based on some of the Black brands they are currently promoting. The current Black Business Box has a self-care theme and includes products like mud masks, wax melts and body butter.

“We saw a market that was having little success, and in the middle of a pandemic, some Black-owned businesses were closing or getting bought out,” Dobbs said. “We decided to create a niche, with the intention of getting people to spend their money with Black people, and to keep that money within the community.”

Black Business Boxes also have a complete marketplace, which is a landing page full of Black-owned businesses. The businesses on the marketplace offer a wide variety of products. Some of the businesses that are currently on the marketplace are Blak Watches, Ubeauty Essentials and Corey’s Kitchen Collection.

Dobbs and Gray have experienced early success with Black Business Boxes.

“Last year we did a sock drive for Clothe The West, and we were able to raise money as well as give them 1,000 pairs of socks,” Dobbs said. “We hadn’t been a business for very long, and people were giving us money for something good because they believed in us.”

Another special moment for Black Business Boxes came in July, when it was chosen by Louisville City FC as the team’s “Minority Business of the Month.” During that month, Black Business Boxes was marketed on Louisville City FC’s social media channels, as well as broadcasted during both home and away games.

For this new business, Dobbs knows they are not finished growing yet. Their goal is to help create a Black economy and Black Business Boxes is a steppingstone.

“We’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t have the time to promote their business,” Dobbs said. “People are excited about their businesses, but struggle with the support to start, so we get to provide that need by helping market their brands.”

As former UofL head football coach, now ESPN College GameDay host Lee Corso says, “Not so fast, my friend.”

Raise Some L supporters made 2020 an absolutely great year for the university’s annual day of giving, increasing donations sevenfold from 2019 to 2020.

Held over 1,798 minutes (in honor of UofL’s founding year) Oct. 20 and Oct. 21, Raise Some L 2020 blew away last year’s total with $6.5 million in gifts and pledges from donors in 40 states across the county. In 2019, the total raised was a little in excess of $926,000.

Donors to Raise Some L chose where their gifts could be designated across the campus in academics, research, community engagement and clinical care.

“I want to say a big thank you … to all of you who supported Raise Some L, our annual day of giving. You came together as one Cardinal community to give back to those areas that you are most passionate about,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “You have demonstrated to the world that we stand united together in our mission.”

Bendapudi’s video message thanking donors is available for sharing

Competitions among groups helped keep the giving spirit alive throughout the event. Winners in each category were as follows:

Leaderboard Challenge

The Leaderboard Challenge Awards go to groups raising the most donations overall. These five winners will receive additional funding to their areas thanks to an anonymous donor:

1. RaiseRed Dance Marathon
2. School of Medicine
3. College of Arts & Sciences
4. MLK Scholars Program
5. UofL Health – James Graham Brown Cancer Center

Ambassador Impact

Three hundred, seventy-seven ambassadors volunteered as fundraisers for the event, raising 558 gifts with an average gift amount of $69. These top five ambassadors will receive additional funding to the area of their choice thanks to an anonymous donor:

1. Brian Buford
2. Jennifer Koch
3. Leslie Friesen
4. Amanda LeDuke
5. Lora Haynes

Early Bird Challenge

The Early Bird Challenge winner is the group raising the most funds by midnight on Oct. 20. This year’s winner is RaiseRed Dance Marathon.

Raise Some L is sponsored annually by University Advancement. More information about donating to UofL can be found

The markers were unveiled Oct. 23 in the plaza between the Belknap Academic Building and the Student Activities Center.��

The 10 markers—one representing NPHC overall and nine representing each affiliated Greek fraternity and sorority—were planned and designed by students.��

Founded in 1930 at Howard University in Washington D.C., NPHC supports Black college students who seek the benefits of a Greek organization, especially collegial collaboration, peer activism and a robust campus life.�� ��

Political science senior Brandon McClain, who spoke at the unveiling ceremony, said NPHC’s mission is to work “toward advancing the social and economic status of African American and other persons of color through lifelong brotherhood and sisterhood.”

McClain, who is also vice president of the university’s NPHC and president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., said the plots serve as a reminder that “the University of Louisville National Pan-Hellenic Council is strong and united. This campus is better because we are here.”

“I don’t need to tell you how much Black Greek life has meant to Black life in this country. If you think about the leadership, the scholars, the activists that are right here in our midst today, the debt we owe is incredible,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi during the virtual ceremony.

Dean of Students and Chief Student Affairs Officer Michael Mardis said conversations have been ongoing about having a physical, permanent location on campus to recognize NPHC.��

“With some of the renovations underway, the idea came up and the students thought maybe we could utilize the plaza space,” Mardis said.��“Our goal every day at the university is to make sure every student has a place to belong and an opportunity to succeed and achieve their goals.”

Members of NPHC and its Black fraternities and sororities have a strong record of overall student success including higher grade point averages and higher graduation rates than non-Greek students. NPHC members are typically active in leadership roles as both students and alumni.

For alumna Terina Matthews-Davis (‘93) the NPHC plots are a gratifying milestone in a journey she helped launch. In the early 1990s, Matthews-Davis was part of a group dedicated to establishing NPHC at UofL. ��

“We saw all of our friends at other schools with NPHC chapters and saw an opportunity to govern ourselves,” she said. “We wanted something where we could have intimate, and sometimes controversial, conversations amongst like-minded people.”��

Mardis said that while NPHC has been linked with UofL for nearly 30 years, not all council-affiliated chapters—often called the Divine Nine—were active during those decades.

“By April, 2012, all Divine Nine were back on campus and it was truly a great celebration,” Mardis said.��

The Black fraternity and sorority chapters under the NPHC umbrella are Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc. and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc.��

Photos of the marker dedication . To watch a video of the virtual event,

Paula Johnson, a doctorate of nursing practice student, says it is important to pause and commemorate the milestone and think about the advancement of women.��

“It is truly amazing that all four of my daughters and I are in school at UofL in the year that we, as women, celebrate our progress in issues of equal rights, including our right to vote,” she said.

With two daughters pursuing engineering degrees, one step-daughter earning a business degree and one step-daughter following in Johnson’s footsteps to become a nurse, Johnson says she is extremely proud.

“You have to do what you love and make a career out of your naturally given talents,” she said. “There are lots of mountains to go over in school but I encourage the girls to remember they are going over them in order to do what they love.”

For Johnson, it is a passion for nursing, and a goal to teach the next generation.

She has been in the nursing profession for 30 years, including working as an advanced practice nurse for 23 years.

“After working so many years as a nurse practitioner, I have a lot to share and want to reflect that to students who don’t know what we have come from as a profession and where we are going – why we have to be evidence-based and perform at a very high level,” she said.

Johnson says she had a great opportunity to interact with medical students and residents, along with nursing students while working 14 years for UofL Pediatric Neurology before transitioning to Norton Medical Group – Child Neurology.

She is hopeful for her future, and can’t wait to see her daughters launch into their own careers upon graduation.

“I was always guiding my daughters – asking them what classes they liked in school and helping them figure out what they loved to do,” she said.

And, in the year of this historic centennial and progress of women’s rights, Johnson says she is reminded they can all strive toward what they dream of becoming.

Meade’s academic adviser suggested she consider UofL’s elective Personal and Academic Inquiry seminar, designed to help undecided second-year students identify their strengths and academic goals. Hopeful that it might point her in the direction of a potential career path, Meade decided to take the course during the fall semester of her sophomore year.

“I was consumed about which direction I needed to go in,” she said. “I was looking forward to getting time out of my week to sit down with people who could help me figure out what would be best for me. I went in hoping to move closer toward that goal.”

The seminar, first offered in spring 2018, is the central component of UofL’s Find Your Fit (FYF) program, an initiative launched in 2017 to address the specific needs of those undergraduates deemed “exploratory” (undecided on a major, or not yet admitted to the school or college of their choice), or those who are seeking to transition out of a major and struggling to find a good fit. FYF is the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), an experimental five-year initiative focused on improving student success that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) requires all higher education institutions to develop as part of their reaccreditation process.

Students who participate in the FYF Personal and Academic Inquiry course meet for an hour and 15 minutes twice a week to make progress on academic inquiry projects that spring from the academic theme of each section. Alongside these projects, students work with closely with the designated advisor to engage with, and interpret, personal assessments, such as the StrengthsFinder inventory, and participate in an array of self-exploration exercises and activities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the relevance of the Find Your Fit seminar. Some students are feeling uncertain about their major or career plans in this new landscape of the pandemic. Despite the changing environment, the team of campus instructors in the FYF program continues to support students in both virtual and face-to-face environments.

The seminar is led by a three-instructor team comprised of a UofL faculty member, an exploratory and transition advisor, and a librarian. Students use the library and other university resources to research areas of interest with ongoing support from the instructional team.

Each instructional team provides a good mix of perspectives, according to Kimcherie Lloyd, professor and School of Music director of orchestral studies, opera theater and undergraduate studies. Lloyd uses music in class to initiate discussions and pique students’ interest in learning more about various topics.

“Music has nothing to do with what their career choices should or might be; it’s just something to start a conversation about their interests,” she shared. “It’s immediately easier to have a discussion because everybody has likes and dislikes and opinions. The class uses music as a vehicle to help them develop questions and start on research.”

Robert Detmering, associate professor and information literacy coordinator at the University of Louisville Libraries, currently serves as a member of one of the instructional teams.

“The intent is to help exploratory students who are maybe having trouble finding out where they’re situated in the university, in terms of a major, but also in terms of the community and relationships they have on campus,” Detmering said. “Find Your Fit is designed to help students think through where they’re at in life, what their goals are, and help them go through a research process that’s personally meaningful to them.”

Tracking down answers to questions raised in class can help students grow comfortable with the research process.

“Sometimes people feel uncomfortable asking questions or feel like they should know how library research operates and maybe aren’t sure how to go about getting help,” Detmering said. “In a class like this, we’re able to work closely with students and show them resources that exist and how to use them.”

By the end of the course, instructors have found that a number of students are able to identify a few potential career choices, which UofL advisor Jessica Newton—who has served as an advisor on multiple instructional teams—views as a success.

“Everybody is at a different place,” she said. “Some have found a path and have a better idea where they’re going, while some are still unsure and are working on it. My goal is just for them to come away from the course at least knowing what resources are available. Really, my entire role is to facilitate the decision-making process. That starts with getting to know yourself really well and examining your values and strengths.

For Meade, the experience was transformative. An in-class exercise matching students’ values to corresponding jobs suggested clinical psychology might be a potential option for her; later reading about a storytelling-based method of therapy during a class research project inspired Meade to craft an individualized major involving psychology, creative writing, and women and gender studies.

“I just understood at that point what my strengths were and what that could do—what I wanted to do,” she says. “I really enjoy creative writing. English is something that’s my strong suit, and mental health has been something I’ve been passionate about. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to combine those things [before the class].”

Meade is now on track to graduate a semester early and plans to go to graduate school to become a clinical psychologist, with the ultimate goal of offering writing-based therapeutic services.

The Find Your Fit QEP initiative is an opportunity to foster a campus-wide conversation about student learning and success in the crucial second year of undergraduate studies. The FYF team is always looking for instructional members to join this unique experience and initiative at UofL. More information is .��

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According to the University Career Center, internships, co-op and experiential learning listings for 2019-2020 increased by 72% over the previous year. The bulk of the listings increased prior to the pandemic, but while COVID-19 stalled the workforce, it didn’t stop Cardinals from seeking and finding outside-the-classroom opportunities – even if they looked a little different.

Stuart Esrock, faculty-in-residence at the University Career Center, and Bill Fletcher, director of the University Career Center, acknowledge the increase in experiential learning opportunities during a global pandemic is surprising, but they say it makes sense from an economic perspective.

Listings of internships and co-op opportunities initially took a dive in March and April, when stay-at-home orders were issued, but the center began to see a slight increase in June. “Some of that increase in June was really because we began to see an increase in the economy overall,” Esrock said.

The increase is good news for students. UofL strongly encourages adding a real-world component to the undergraduate experience. Participating in internships and co-ops helps students build a skill set that extends past a classroom setting, network with future colleagues and business contacts, discover what they are passionate about and what they dislike, and earn work experience while still completing an undergraduate degree

Fletcher and Esrock said experiential learning offers a well-rounded educational experience, but most importantly, sets UofL students apart in the competitive job market. That’s even more crucial as the pandemic continues to affect the workforce. As Fletcher believes it will take longer than expected to recover economically from the pandemic, he stressed the importance of gaining work experience where available.

He added that the University Career Center has adapted its services to make sure students are prepared for a new sense of workplace normalcy, when everything from interviews to hiring is being done virtually.

The center has a plethora of resources to prepare students for the virtual workplace. It has virtual interview etiquette tips, mock interviews, appointments with a career coach, resume review, and other resources to help students figure out what career path they are interested in pursuing.

“We want to give students a realistic view of what’s going on in the world right now, about the job market, but we don’t want them to give up hope,” Esrock said.��

The program provides training and $50,000 in funding that helps university researchers translate the ideas they develop in the lab into new, technology-backed startups. Participating teams complete an intense, two-month bootcamp learning about commercialization, engaging with industry and talking to potential customers.

Two projects from UofL were chosen to participate in recent bootcamp cohorts:

• BioCaRGOS, short for Capture and Release Gels for Optimized Storage (bioCaRGOS), uses a novel water-based stabilizer to enable storage of sensitive biospecimens like RNA, DNA or proteins at low temperatures for long periods of time, including during transport to remote locations. The project team includes: co-inventors Gautam Gupta and��Rajat Chauhan, both in the J.B. Speed School of Engineering, and business mentor Jeff Cummins, who also is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the UofL Office of Research and Innovation.

• ARNA, short for , an artificially intelligent health care robot created to provide round-the-clock patient monitoring and allow nurses to focus more on direct patient care by taking on some of their time-consuming tasks. The project team includes: co-inventors Dan Popa and Sumit Kumar Das, of engineering, and business mentor Mary Tapolsky, of the UofL Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship.

Chauhan, of the BioCaRGOS team, said the experience helped his team find an industry commercialization partner. They currently are seeking partners for an upcoming application NSF Partnerships for Innovation program, which allows NSF-backed projects like his to work with industry on research and development and accelerate the technology’s path to market.

“Vaccine stability (especially for COVID-19) remains a critical challenge and is the critical bottleneck for effective distribution of the state-of-art MRNA based vaccines to current population,” said Chauhan, BioCaRGOS entrepreneurial lead and a postdoctoral research scientist. “Our technology has the potential to advance the delivery of vaccines at room temperature, a feat that cannot be achieved currently.”

Teams must be nominated for the national I-Corps bootcamp, and must first complete a regional . Both the BioCARGOS and ARNA teams completed UofL’s I-Corps site program — part of UofL’s suite of��, that also includes the UofL , NIH and NSF programs. I-Corps at UofL requires successful participation and completion of , UofL’s own 10-week entrepreneurial bootcamp.

“These programs support commercialization of the work being done by our researchers here at UofL,” said Jessica Sharon, UofL’s director of innovation programs. “We’re proud of the ARNA and BioCARGOS teams, and their work to accelerate product development of their innovations to address unmet needs in the market.”��

UofL earned five out of five stars from the Campus Pride Index, a national nonprofit organization that rates colleges and universities according to their support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. ��

UofL earned a five out of five for the following inclusion factors:

• Sexual orientation score
• Gender identify/expression score
• LGBTQ support and institutional commitment
• LGBTQ student life
• LGBTQ counseling and health
• LGBTQ recruitment and retention efforts

UofL earned a four or four and a half out of five for the following inclusion factors:

• LGBTQ policy inclusion
• LGBTQ academic life
• LGBTQ housing and residence life
• LGBTQ campus safety

Some of UofL’s signature LGTBQ-friendly initiatives include offering an LGBT Studies minor program, the School of Medicine’s curriculum inclusion efforts (which have become a national benchmark for other institutions), the LGBT Center’s robust programming, LGBTQ-inclusive career services, LGBTQ clubs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, trans-inclusive healthcare, free and anonymous HIV/STI testing and LGBTQ student scholarships.

The LGBT Center marked its 10^th anniversary in 2017.

Campus Pride acknowledges UofL’s goal to foster and sustain an environment of inclusiveness. The organization’s synopsis states, “One of the five critical areas of the University of Louisville’s 2020 Plan is Diversity, Opportunity, and Social Justice. UofL is committed to creating a challenging intellectual climate enhanced by our many human differences, and this serves as the foundational objective of the programs and services provided by the Office for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Services. The Office supports the 2020 plan by working to strengthen and sustain an inclusive campus, one that welcomes people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions through support, educational resources, and advocacy. The office works in partnership with other diversity efforts on campus supporting the Vice Provost for Diversity and International Affairs.”

UofL supports that 2020 plan by:

• Maintaining a “safe zone” gathering space where students, faculty and staff—regardless of their identity or orientation–can make positive connections with staff and peers
• Providing a hub for LGBT student organizations
• Promoting student/employee retention and success through personal support, advising and by connecting them with services and resources
• Developing and facilitating education and training for the campus community
• Reaching out to prospective and new students, faculty, and staff to make them feel welcome and connected to campus

UofL is one of only three Kentucky institutions on this year’s list. The 2020 “Best of the Best” listing is based on the data provided annually through CPI related to policies, programs and practices. The research is analyzed by the Campus Pride research team. .

“Getting homesick can be hard, especially when you’re a Latinx student that is thousands of miles away from home immersed into a different culture. The Los Cardenales group is a brilliant idea for Latinx student athletes to fight homesickness and to meet other athletes that share a similar culture, heritage and language,” Aguilera continued. “This group was made for Latinx��student-athletes����to find a family far from home, which is important so we are able to express our identity, to share our individualism and to show who we really are.”
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