Not long after graduating in 2017 and 2018, the group founded and funded a women’s scholarship to be awarded annually to an outstanding rising senior in the graphic design program.

Benefiting from taking classes together in a tightknit cohort, the graduates developed strong friendships and wanted to keep in touch after earning their degrees while also staying connected intellectually. Most remained in Louisville initially, so they started monthly gatherings called the Dezine Book Club, named after an inside joke based on their graphic design experience.

Later, as some were moving away to other jobs, they decided to establish a scholarship, which they branded Dezine for that sense of fun and camaraderie and which they intended to encourage other female students to benefit from a collaborative experience like theirs. That sense of the design community hearkened back in part to Leslie Friesen, the Power Agency designer-in-residence at UofL’s Hite Art Institute, according to Deryn Greer Walker ’18.

“She encouraged collaboration and critique, in the sense of ‘I want to do well and help others to do better,’” said Walker, now an experience designer for Humana in the Boston area. “We were all constantly working together.”

The women crafted the criteria for the scholarship to specifically speak to that, seeking a recipient who is “preeminently collaborative, perpetuates constructive feedback and transcends design by … fostering an attitude of fearless idea-sharing, not afraid to risk their personal advantage, and …. by investing in cross-disciplinary skills and interests to improve themselves and the communities they move in.”

“Particularly in the creative field, it’s typical to hold onto your idea,” Walker said, but added that it can be more valuable to take risk, move out of a “silo,” gain other perspectives and build on ideas with others. “When you make your idea available to other people, you invite the good.”

The seven alumnae cooperate on the selection process, dividing up the interviews with applicants, using an evaluation rubric and discussing the conversations with the candidates. The first recipient was Arry Schofield ’21; a second recipient of the $1,000-$1,500 scholarship will to be chosen this summer for the fall semester.

“They were great,” Schofield said. The freelance design contractor said she enjoyed the interview process and the opportunity to talk to women who had gone through her same experiences. Like them, Schofield said, she appreciated the bonding with other graphic design students that results from the cohort approach of taking all the same classes and working together.

“Another huge plus of the graphic design program is all of the alums are really empathetic toward people going through the program,” Schofield said. “I really hope I can pay that forward.”

Four Dezine founders have kept the Louisville area as home: Emi Johnson Jones ’18 with GE Appliances’ Giddy online startup program, Cait Bender ’18 with INgrid Design, Amber Kleitz Cox ’18 with Humana and Kylar Ware ’18, a freelance illustrator and designer whose “Our Home” and “Raise Your L” murals adorn UofL’s Swain Student Activities Center.

Ann Wood ’17 is a brand designer for Pharma at Johnson & Johnson in New York, while Rachel Suding ’18 is a graphic designer for the Miami Marlins.

Through the graphic design program the sports-minded Suding was able to find a school internship with the Louisville Bats baseball team and accept a full-time job there after graduation.

“That paved the way for me to major league baseball,” Suding said. “Now I’m in my dream career. I think our design program gave me a really strong foundation.”

Even though the seven designers have pursued somewhat different career paths, they still share ideas and realize they are fortunate to sustain their UofL-born connection though scattered geographically.

“We were looking to give back to the program that gave us so much,” Suding said.

As of April 30, the Foundation’s main endowment pool was valued at almost $785 million, while the value of its total endowment assets (some assets are managed separately) was $897 million. The combined value of ULF endowment assets and those of the UofL Real Estate Foundation was almost $1.3 billion, also a record.

Even more significantly, said foundation Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Keith Sherman, all endowment accounts are now above water, meaning they are worth more than they were when initially established.

The foundation’s success is vital to the university’s operations. The higher the value of its endowments, the more money it can provide annually to support student scholarships, endowed faculty salaries and support for general operations. In fiscal year 2022, the foundation will provide the university with more than $50 million of support. That amount is expected to increase in future years since accounts that have been brought above water will begin seeing full spending policy distributions in fiscal year 2023. This is because spending policy distributions are calculated based upon each endowment’s value as of the prior December 31.��For example, the spending policy for this July was based upon December 31, 2020 values.

Planning, performance, discipline led to recovery

The recovery has taken several years of reforms, changes in management’s approach, establishment of a more conservative spending policy, rigorous compliance to ensure donor intentions are fulfilled and extraordinary investment performance, Sherman said. In addition, since 2018 ULF infused more than $24 million in cash from the sale of non-strategic assets into the underwater accounts.

“The accomplishments made on behalf of our donors and the university were not simple fixes that could happen overnight,” he said, adding that the foundation is “in its strongest financial position in well over a decade.”

Two of the world’s largest credit agencies, Moody’s Investor Services and S&P Global Ratings, have noticed. Moody’s upgraded the foundation’s credit rating to Baa1 stable, while S&P affirmed its A+ stable rating.�� The agencies cited significant improvement in the foundation’s financial policies, management credibility and fiscal oversight as factors in the strong ratings.

The ratings “continue to prove that the foundation’s strategic plan is working,” said Earl Reed, chairman of the ULF Board of Directors. “We have worked hard to arrive at our current financial position – our strongest financial position in a decade – and these ratings prove that it is being noticed. The steps we have taken to ensure ULF’s fiscal health, compliance and transparency have been remarkable, and we have kept much of our focus on ensuring responsible oversight of funds into the future. We are excited and energized to keep working diligently to move things forward in the right way.”

UofL’s Hite Art Institute partnered with the St. James Scholarship Foundation to host a scholarship competition for local high school artists. While this is the St. James Court Associations’ 47th year awarding scholarships, 2019 is the first year the works submitted by students were displayed at UofL’s Cressman Gallery.

The three winners were Muny Mok, Madeline Matheu and Chloe Young, all hailing from duPont Manual High School. After earning a combined $45,000 worth of scholarship money for UofL, the trio will be exhibiting their award-winning work at the three-day long show.

Kirby Holloway, chairman of the St. James Court Scholarship Foundation, believes programs like this are a necessity.

“My big driving factor … is enabling these kids and investing in the future,” said Holloway. “We must invest in our future generations, it’s our responsibility as a community.”

Since its inaugural show in 1957, the St. James Court Art Show has collected a multitude of awards while serving as a staple of Louisville culture. Each year, the show draws roughly 300,000 attendees who view and purchase the works of over 700 artists.

The scholarship competition isn’t UofL’s only connection to the art show. In 2016, members of the used dental plaster materials to make plaster casts of hands, feet and faces at the show.

More information about the St. James Court Art Show, including hours and exhibiting artists, is .��

Photo provided by the .��

“Throughout the day, the UofL community around the world will have the opportunity to fund several noteworthy projects and have a real, immediate impact on UofL,” said Will Holley, director of Annual Giving. “In our inaugural year last year, we raised over $73,000 for student scholarships. This year, we’ve joined forces with 22 campus partners and are raising funds for several scholarships, programs and technical enhancements. Our goal is entirely about participation and helping meaningful projects.”

Below are three of many options you can give to:  

Student Affairs – Three projects that will immediately assist students are the Student Activity Center Expansion, the Bornwasser Student Emergency Fund, and the Cards SPEAK program. The renovation will enhance services and spaces for our university community, the emergency fund assists students who encounter unforeseen financial emergency, and Cards SPEAK provides suicide training and awareness to students, faculty and staff.

Scholarships –  Through a multitude of scholarship designations, you can choose to support a staple scholarship program, or choose to support a scholarship fund that provides assistance in your geographic locations. Support the Henry Vogt Scholarship Program, which helps recruit Kentucky’s best and brightest students to UofL, the Cardinal Covenant Program which makes college attainable for those below poverty line, or one of many regional scholarships maintained by our UofL Alumni chapters and councils.

Stethoscopes for Students – The School of Medicine hopes to activate donors to make a direct impact on incoming medical students’ experience. Donors’ gifts will help provide a new stethoscope for each incoming medical student to be awarded at the student’s White Coat Ceremony.

The UofL Alumni Association will be live-streaming updates all day via social media. View all campus projects and share your own online at UofLDayofGiving.com.