$100K Grant Propels UC Forward Courses, Transdisciplinary Learning

While some students have jetted across the globe to places like India and St. Croix, others have organized historic fashion collections and volunteered with local nonprofits. Now, the University of Cincinnati will fund even more innovative courses after securing a $100,000 grant from PNC Bank.

The PNC Bank Charitable Trust Committee awarded UC Forward “The John A. Schroth Family Charitable Trust” during Spring semester.

“UC Forward was envisioned by the faculty and it suits our very identity and nature at the university,” said Gigi Escoe, vice provost of undergraduate affairs. “This grant is a huge win for us — faculty, students and the outside community organizations we partner with. Think how far we can go with this funding.”

Aligned with UC’s Third Century initiative, UC Forward is a one-of-a-kind teaching, learning and research initiative—pairing students and faculty with external experts, all from differing perspectives—to solve today’s problems and develop tomorrow’s workforce in hands-on and relevant ways.

Funding from the John A. Schroth Family Charitable Trust/ PNC Bank Trustee will support the development of courses through the UC Community Collaborative, UC Forward’s newest Collaborative.

UC Community Collaborative supports course-based partnerships between nonprofits and UC faculty and students, said Cory Christopher, director of UC Forward.

The Collaborative leverages the expertise of faculty focused on service learning, nonprofit leadership and social entrepreneurship to create courses with community agencies that address concrete social problems and inspire social change.  

Christopher and his team applied for the grant earlier this year, and said PNC’s generous funding will allow UC Forward courses to continue to “bring people together across the university.”

Because the UC Community Collaborative courses are partnering with nonprofit agencies, there was a critical need for funding to cover needed materials, speakers and other costs associated with the course projects, Christopher said.

UC Forward was developed in 2011 as a way to foster cross-college courses that unite faculty and students from different colleges and majors with stakeholders outside the university, all focused on developing new ways of answering very tricky problems.

“Companies and organizations, including PNC, want to employ students who are forward thinkers, who are passionate and innovative,” Christopher said. “That’s what these courses intend to do. They allow students the time and experience to explore what they’re passionate about in interdisciplinary, experiential learning environments.”

Because of the grant, students will be able to take classes that bring about tangible social change like “Community Health and Minorities: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” a UC Forward course where students worked with substance abuse patients at the Center for Chemical Addictions Treatment.

UC Forward courses inspire students and faculty to innovate and push the community further through a simple mantra: “Why wait to change the world if you don’t have to?”