Smilodon Integrative Biology Outstanding Student Scholarship

We are very grateful to an extremely generous anonymous donor for recently creating an endowment in Integrative Biology to fund two $250 student scholarships for deserving undergraduate Biology students each semester.

This is our first Biology scholarship endowment. We have hundreds of deserving Biology majors, many supporting families and working their way through school. Scholarship support for undergraduate and graduate students is one of the most important ways that you can help make our program better.

To give to the Smilodon Fund please go to giving.cu and in the write-in fund section paste “Smilodon Biology Scholarship fund, allocation number 0350146” in the comments box.

The Charles Ferguson Scholarship Fund

“There are two things I will never forget about Dr. Ferguson.  The first is that he never wore shoes when he taught and he never told us why.  The second is the way he made us all feel when he gave his last lecture of the semester.  Dr. Ferguson was never a soft touch, but he made sure we all knew that he was proud to be a part of our education and of the positive work we were going forward to do.  For me Dr. Ferguson was more than just a teacher, he was an adviser, a mentor and a role model.  He helped me with the basic things like deciding on which classes to prioritize, when to take the MCAT and which schools to apply to, but what meant the most to me was how he encouraged me to know and stay true to my core values.  When I started as a pre-medical Biology major at UCD, my only background was in poetry and social justice non-profit work.  My major required a lot of work, but I struggled most to figure out where I fit in with my non-traditional background. Dr. Ferguson helped me to see my life experiences as valuable and was a role model for how to incorporate social justice beliefs into my daily work.  I am inspired today to use medicine to promote positive change as he used his many roles to build up so many students who's lives he touched.” - Sarah Bardwell, M.D. Candidate at the University of Colorado School of Medicine

The Charles Ferguson Scholarship will allow pre-health students to pay for expenses beyond tuition, fees and materials. The fund will support students in completing test prep courses, paying application or test fees, or covering life expenses that might derail them at completing their education.  Dr. Ferguson has always been acutely aware of student need and committed to trying to meet it.  He has long had on his ‘wish list’ exactly this sort of fund, so that more students could pursue their educational and professional goals.  Advancement’s goal is to have the scholarship in his honor at endowment level by the end of this academic year.  An endowed scholarship exists in perpetuity at CU and spins off 4% of the principal in support of scholarships. $25,000 is the minimum required to establish an endowed fund.

How to donate:

Checks can be made out to University of Colorado Foundation (include on the memo line of the check “gift is intended for the Charles Ferguson Scholarship, allocation number 0321984”) and mailed to ATTN: Cristina Sloan/Austin Locke University of Colorado Denver, Office of Advancement, 1380 Lawrence St. , Suite 1201, Denver, CO 80204.

OR, go to giving.cu.edu and click on the Give Now button (at the top of the page there is a “click here to write-in a fund” button) use Charles Ferguson Scholarship Support Fund.  The fund number is 0321984.

OR, if you would like to make recurring gifts to Charlie’s fund (also an option on the giving.cu.edu link), you can do so through payroll deduction. Here is the link to the relevant form: https://giving.cu.edu/payroll-deduction-form

Give to Integrative Biology

To provide scholarship support to students enrolled in the Integrative Biology Department at the University of Colorado Denver, please go to: https://giving.cu.edu/fund/integrative-biology-scholarship-fund.  The fund number is 0321964.