“We can improve the standard of living by ensuring that students don’t have a lot of student loan debt,” says Hess. Bryce Richter

As America — and Wisconsin — try to navigate a deepening shortage of K–12 teachers, the UW–Madison School of Education is working to inspire more people to enter the profession. The Wisconsin Teacher Pledge gives students a chance to have their tuition waived if they promise to spend several years teaching at Wisconsin schools.

The National Education Association estimates that the United States has 300,000 fewer teachers than it needs, and in Wisconsin, 74 percent of school districts report being unable to fill positions. In August 2020, the School of Education announced the Teacher Pledge as part of its Impact 2030 campaign: tuition forgiveness for all students who promise to teach in the state for at least four years, or three years in high-need subjects or school districts.

“Salaries in Wisconsin are very low for teachers,” says Diana Hess, the dean of the School of Education. “We can’t do anything directly to improve the salaries, but we can improve the standard of living by ensuring that students don’t have a lot of student loan debt.”

To be eligible for tuition forgiveness, students make the pledge when they’re admitted to a teacher education program, usually after their sophomore year or when they enter as graduate students. The school gives those students a loan that covers tuition and then forgives a percentage of that loan as the students fulfill each year of teaching after they graduate. Hess believes that, after at least three years of working as a teacher, people are likely to commit to the profession for much longer.

But Hess says that the pledge is about more than attracting people into the teaching profession. It’s also a live study to see if the loan forgiveness program really does keep teachers in the profession long-term.

“We’re trying to find out, essentially, does it work and does it work to hit those goals?” Hess says. If the data back that up, she hopes to see the pledge program expand.

Currently about 500 students have taken the Teacher Pledge, and Hess is seeking funding to continue the program into the future.

De Shields: “We have to stand up when the opportunity calls.” Lia Chang

As a Black actor, André De Shields ’70 was repeatedly denied roles in campus productions while attending UW–Madison. De Shields went on to a Tony-winning Broadway career in The Wiz and Hadestown, but his challenges at the UW and elsewhere have inspired the Wisconsin Union Theater to create the André De Shields Fund. It supports artistic projects and performances by Black, Indigenous, and people of color and others who are historically underrepresented on stages and in theater audiences.

De Shields will help promote the fund as a way to break down barriers.

“We have to stand up when the opportunity calls,” he says. “This fund is a vital illustration of what needs to be done.”

Another inspiration for starting the André De Shields Fund was the Black Arts Matter Festival, created by Shasparay Irvin ’20 to celebrate Black art and culture.

“I hope that we help the Andrés and Shasparays of today and tomorrow have fewer obstacles in their way,” says Wisconsin Union Theater director Elizabeth Snodgrass.

“The beauty was in its simplicity,” says Chancellor Rebecca Blank, who greenlit the idea. “Financial aid can be confusing to prospective students. We stripped away the complexity.”

The initiative, known as Bucky’s Tuition Promise, guarantees four years of tuition and segregated fees for any incoming freshman who is a Wisconsin resident and whose family’s annual household adjusted gross income is $60,000 or less. (The figure was $56,000 the first year, the state’s median household income at the time.) Transfer students from Wisconsin can qualify for up to two years of funding.

Already, the program has created an affordable gateway to higher education for thousands of families.

“We know that some high-achieving students from lower- to moderate-income Wisconsin families might not even apply to UW–Madison because they assume they can’t afford it,” says Derek Kindle, vice provost for enrollment management. “Bucky’s Tuition Promise is our pledge to these students that if they do the hard work to get admitted, we’ll find the money.”

The initiative is funded through private gifts and other institutional resources. No taxpayer dollars are used.

Bucky’s Tuition Promise is offered automatically based on a student’s financial aid application. There’s no separate form — another way UW–Madison streamlined the process. And once a student qualifies for Bucky’s Tuition Promise, the promise is good for all four years, even if a family’s financial situation changes.

It’s clear the initiative is transforming individual lives. It’s also designed to transform the student body by making it more economically diverse.

“It’s important to so many of us here that higher education and UW–Madison be engines of upward mobility,” says Nicholas Hillman, an education professor who helped design Bucky’s Tuition Promise and directs the UW’s Student Success Through Applied Research (SSTAR) Lab. “This is one way to act in accordance with our values.”

Elise Marifian PhDx’23, a doctoral candidate in economics and a SSTAR Lab research affiliate, is researching the initiative’s impact. Early results are promising. Marifian found that in the first year of the program, being eligible for Bucky’s Tuition Promise increased the probability that a student from Wisconsin would accept an enrollment offer from UW–Madison by seven percentage points.

“Bucky’s Tuition Promise is one of the most powerful ways we’re ensuring that an education at the state’s flagship university is accessible and affordable for our Wisconsin families,” Blank says.

There are now almost 3,500 students on campus benefiting from Bucky’s Tuition Promise. The first full class of recipients will graduate this spring. Here are some of the ways the program has made their dreams come true.

“It Was Just So Unexpected”

Vande Hey is the first in his family to attend college.

Among family and friends, Parker Vande Hey x’22 is known as the frugal one. Okay, the cheap one.

“Most of my clothes are from thrift stores,” he says. “Goodwill is my favorite, especially when you can buy them out of a bin by the pound.”

Vande Hey grew up on a dairy farm outside of Wrightstown, south of Green Bay, but didn’t want to go into the family business. He worked throughout high school — coffee shop, golf course, pizza restaurant — saving $12,000 by graduation.

“That’s a big chunk of money for a high school kid,” says Vande Hey, the first in his family to attend college, “but it’s not going to get you very far when it comes to tuition.”

When he learned he’d been awarded full tuition for four years, he was shocked. “To have a public university offer you that much money — it was just so unexpected.”

Through internships and part-time jobs, Vande Hey has earned enough money to cover his other college expenses. “I don’t have a lot of spending money, but I’ll be graduating without debt, and I’m so fortunate to be able to say that.”

He’ll complete a bachelor’s degree in marketing this spring.

“Bucky’s Tuition Promise helped me more than I could ever have imagined,” he says. “It made it much easier to focus on studying, which is why we’re here in the first place.”

“We Didn’t Have a Safety Net”

When triplets Eden ’21, Naomi x’23, and Joel x’22 Foster turned 22 in October, they celebrated together — one big party, three sets of college friends.

“It was so fun to bring so many people together,” Joel says. “We wouldn’t be able to do that if we all went to different universities.”

The Madison triplets didn’t set out to attend the same college, but they all landed at UW–Madison because of Bucky’s Tuition Promise and a fondness for the university sparked years ago by a “College for Kids” event on campus.

The Foster triplets didn’t set out to attend the same college, but they all landed at UW–Madison because of Bucky’s Tuition Promise. Left-to-right: Naomi, mother Kiyoko, Eden, and Joel.

“It’s not like we couldn’t be apart,” Naomi says. “But it’s definitely been a bonus to be together.”

The siblings describe a typical childhood that suddenly changed at age eight when their father died.

“We were the normal, comfortable, middle-class family until our dad passed,” says Eden, a triple-major in political science, philosophy, and international studies. “Then money became very tight.”

“It put us in a difficult situation — a single, immigrant parent raising triplets,” says Naomi, who is studying dietetics. “Anyone looking at that would say, ‘How did she do that?’ ”

To help their mom, the three grew up fast. They earned their own money and managed their own finances. They studied hard at Memorial High School in Madison — all made the honor roll.

“Since we didn’t have a safety net, it made going to college even more imperative so that we could secure our futures,” says Joel, a double-major in computer sciences and Japanese.

They’ve flourished on campus. Eden earned a scholarship to study abroad in Botswana. Joel serves on the board of the Japanese Student Association. Naomi performs with the a cappella group Tangled Up in Blue.

Soon, they all will be graduates. Three caps, three gowns, three diplomas. Many more parties.

“A World I Didn’t Know Existed”

Tikiri Bandara x’22 often hears fellow students say they chose UW–Madison because of how beautiful the campus looked on the day they toured it.

“That’s fine — it is a beautiful campus,” says Bandara, of Platteville, a city in southwestern Wisconsin. “But for me, it literally came down to a financial aid offer I could not refuse.”

Bandara says he received acceptance letters from several universities, but none could compete with Bucky’s Tuition Promise.

“It’s the sole reason I’m here,” he says. His parents divorced when he was a toddler, and beginning at age 13, he was raised by his father, who immigrated to the U.S. from Sri Lanka.

Once on campus, Bandara realized his pragmatic choice brought with it opportunities he didn’t foresee and would not have found elsewhere. At a conference his freshman year for students considering a medical career, he listened as a doctor with UW Med Flight described transporting a young person who had been trampled by cows.

“A lightbulb went on — medicine and aviation,” Bandara says. “I realized that the lifesaving work UW Med Flight does all over the state really embodies the Wisconsin Idea. I wanted to be part of it.”

Once on campus, Bandara found that his pragmatic choice brought opportunities he didn’t foresee.

He took a class for emergency medical technicians the spring semester of his freshman year and began volunteering that summer with Lancaster Emergency Medical Services near Platteville. As a sophomore, he was hired by UW Med Flight for a part-time job at its operations center, helping to coordinate medical transports.

Bandara continues to work there up to 24 hours a week and also volunteers as an emergency medical technician in Mount Horeb, a village near Madison. A neurobiology major, he anticipates a career in the medical field.

“Bucky’s Tuition Promise is about so much more than just the bottom line,” he says. “It brought me to UW–Madison and opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know existed.”

“This Can’t Be Real”

Alaina Houghton-Chamberlain x’22 remembers the exact moment she got the email telling her she’d receive Bucky’s Tuition Promise. She’d gone to school early that day — at DeForest High School, near Madison — to prepare for an Advanced Placement calculus test. Sitting in the auditorium, she took a break from her studies and scanned her inbox.

“I saw it and thought, ‘This can’t be real.’ It seemed like a fake thing.”

She Googled it. It was real.

“I cried. Then I called my mom and she cried. And then we cried together,” says Houghton-Chamberlain. “For the first time in my college application process, my future at UW–Madison was finally in sight.”

She’d had her doubts. A first-generation college student from modest means, she had fretted over whether she could afford a degree or was even college material. UW–Madison turned out to be a wonderful choice, introducing her to animal research, now her passion.

UW–Madison introduced Houghton-Chamberlain to animal research, now her passion.

Surrounded by pets as a child — dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters, snakes — she jumped at the chance to work weekends feeding and watering mice at a campus research center. That led to work in the lab of Professor Joan Jorgensen ’88, DVM’93, where Houghton-Chamberlain is leading the data collection on a study of how a specific gene affects communication between cells in the ovaries of mice.

“I always knew I loved animals, but I didn’t know whether I could turn that interest into an actual career,” says Houghton-Chamberlain, who is double-majoring in biology and philosophy and hopes to attend veterinary school. “The UW was where my interest in animal research was realized.” •

Bryce Richter

Below are some of the thank-you letters from students who received scholarships through the All Ways Forward Comprehensive Campaign. Their gratitude shows just one of the ways that the campaign has made a difference — changing not only students’ lives, but the lives of their families as well.

I come from a low-income family, and without scholarships from donors like you, I wouldn’t be able to get my degree without swimming in debt. I want to change the world of food science, and your help gets me closer to that goal.

— Bea Sutton x’24

I cannot thank the donors enough for their financial support. If I wasn’t [receiving financial assistance], there is no way I could be attending UW–Madison. I grew up in a single-parent, low-income house- hold and wasn’t expected to go far in life. Being a first-generation college student at this prestigious university shows I am beating the odds stacked against me. I am so thankful for the education I am gaining and will not take it for granted.

— Melanie Spencer x’23

This [scholarship] has certainly changed the course of my life, and without it, I probably wouldn’t have gone to college. This [gift] has made it possible for me to get my education and one day change my family’s life. Once I graduate and am able to start making more money, I can then provide more for my family as well.

— Anthony Yang x’25

First and foremost, I am thankful. It has been a mission for me to help my family financially (specifically my mom, who’s in Puerto Rico), after graduating college and getting a job. I first moved to the U.S. back in middle school because I wanted to pursue higher education. … It is something that not many see happen back in Puerto Rico.

— Elliot Lopez-Henriquez x’25

Support for an artist is extremely vital; a lot of people don’t understand how expensive artistic pursuits can be. The scholarship will allow me to change each of my cello strings and bow hairs without struggling to find the funds to do so. Receiving the scholarship validates my purpose and studies in college, and I am forever grateful.

— Ivan Xiong x’24

Most people don’t understand the effects of generational poverty or the immense pride that comes with breaking out of it. To provide someone with that ability is beyond incredible.

— Kora Zoe Quinn x’23

I would say that people who … give like this understand what it is to help other people. They understand that there is a world out there and there are lives beyond their own, and that you don’t have to know or meet someone to be kind to them. They make the world a better place in their own wonderful way, and I hope they know what this means to the people who receive their help.

— Leah Morley x’24

Worrying about finances has been a part of my life since I was a toddler, and even though I believe because of it I am a more responsible, independent person, I do not enjoy continuously thinking about money, or lack thereof. I know that my education has been improved as I have more attention to give it; I know my life has been improved because I’ve seen the struggles of my sisters and my mother with massive student debt. Receiving this scholarship has been monumental, and I appreciate it every single day in some aspect.

— Lowell Harwell x’23

The moment I found out about the scholarship is still one of the best moments of my life.  This opportunity literally changed my life.

— Matthew Dwyer x’23

I want to personally thank the donors for this scholarship, because I come from a generation of immigrants. My parents work their hearts out every day for my brother and me. Therefore, all the help I can get so that my parents don’t have to worry about my college expenses means the world to me.

— Vy Lu x’24

Gittens is helping the university explore “transforrmative change.” Jeff Miller

UW–Madison is working to meet its public mission by creating a diverse and inclusive community. It’s made progress with successful programs like Diversity Forum and the Faculty Diversity Initiative.

But after the recent Black Lives Matter protests and other calls to action, UW leaders saw an opportunity to redouble their commitment to a welcoming campus environment.

“We believe diversity is a source of strength, offering opportunities for innovation, scholarship, and community-building,” says Cheryl Gittens, the UW’s interim deputy vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion. “Diversity strengthens our learning enterprise as a whole.”

A new Office of Inclusion Education, housed within Student Affairs, will develop programming that addresses identity and community. It grew out of conversations with the Student Inclusion Coalition, the Wisconsin Black Student Union, and other groups representing students who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

To equip students with the skills for creating an inclusive community, the Our Wisconsin training program is now mandatory for incoming undergraduates.

“It’s a good strategy to think about this curriculum in the same way we consider other educational programs, like AlcoholEdu or preventing sexual harassment and sexual violence,” Gittens says.

A new Exceptional Service Support Award will acknowledge faculty who play a critical role in supporting institutional inclusion efforts. Recipients will gain release time from teaching to allow a focus on service.

“Their work as mentors and collaborators is critical to what we’re trying to do to create an inclusive campus environment,” Gittens says.

The university is partnering with the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association on a $10 million fundraising initiative to recruit and retain a more diverse group of students, faculty, and staff. It’s also investing $1 million in research that sheds light on race in America.

“This is what I appreciate about UW–Madison,” Gittens says. “There’s a commitment to strategies we can adopt to better understand who we are and where we need to direct our energy toward transformative change.”

Kessenich has pledged an estate gift of $1 million to need-based scholarships for students in mathematics, computer science, and data science. Frank Woodbery

The next time you take vacation photos on your phone or store homework on a flash drive, you can thank Jeff Kessenich ’83.

His name is on 11 patents issued for the memory chips that improve storage reliability in smartphones, digital cameras, and other devices. Kessenich used his UW degree in Applied Mathematics, Engineering, and Physics to pursue a career in the semiconductor industry, eventually retiring from Micron Technology.

“I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to collaborate on projects with so many intelligent and incredibly talented individuals,” he says. “Often I felt like we were writing a new page in the textbooks every week.”

Kessenich is now on a mission to help today’s students launch their own careers in technology. He has pledged an estate gift of $1 million to need-based scholarships for students in mathematics, computer science, and data science. Thanks to the Patterson Match, a generous gift from James Patterson and Susan Patterson ’79, MFA’82 that underwrites student support, an endowed scholarship was created in Kessenich’s honor.

After he retired, the Vancouver, Washington, resident taught briefly at a community college. He came away from the experience struck by how hard it was for many students to pay for an education. “If students really want to go to college, I don’t want them dissuaded by the fear of taking on a large amount of student loan debt,” he says. “I feel good doing something about that.”

Kessenich says he could have directed his gift to a number of universities, “but I have a soft spot for Wisconsin, and I value the education I got there.”

Kessenich’s desire to give back extends to numerous initiatives in his local community. He tutors disadvantaged high school students in math. A master gardener, he’s a neighborhood tree steward and also a “stream steward.” Kessenich has received an award for his work in tree planting and natural area restoration, as well as for volunteering at a cat shelter.

When we spoke with Kessenich, he was wearing a UW T-shirt because the hockey team was playing that day. “I’m always supporting my Badgers,” he says.

The Mercile J. Lee Scholars Program has benefited more than 2,600 undergraduates in the last 35 years. Andy Manis

The late Mercile Lee was the founding director of the Chancellor’s and Powers-Knapp Scholarship Programs, which attract talented students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. The two scholarships, now collectively known as the Mercile J. Lee Scholars Program, have benefited more than 2,600 undergraduates in the last 35 years. Today, there are more than 525 Chancellor’s and Powers-Knapp Scholars on campus, 134 of them new this fall. Patrick Sims, UW–Madison’s deputy vice chancellor and chief diversity officer, has called the programs “among the most lauded scholarship and mentoring programs in the country.”

A major gift from Phill ’82, MS’83 and Liz Gross will expand the Chancellor’s Scholarship Program. “This gift will ensure that the Mercile J. Lee Scholars Program continues to grow and thrive for generations to come,” Chancellor Rebecca Blank said at a ceremony announcing the naming honor in November 2018. Some 350 people attended the event, many of them former scholarship recipients. They praised Lee’s leadership, vision, and mentoring.

Dominic Ledesma ’04, a former Powers-Knapp scholar, said, “The unconditional support [Lee] offered, coupled with high expectations and structured measures of accountability, underlies our definition of tough love — the love Mercile provided for all of her scholars.”

The Grosses have long supported programs that help bring a college degree within reach for talented young people. Phill Gross, who is a cofounder and managing director of Adage Capital Management in Boston, became friends with Lee. At the November naming announcement, he said that he and his wife met Lee many years ago and were immediately impressed with her ability to mentor and nurture so many students at one time.

“It didn’t matter where they came from, or what their race was, or what their family background was like; we knew Mercile would improve their standing and the standing of their future generations by making sure they were the best they could possibly be,” he said.

Phill often checked in with Lee on his trips to Madison. He last visited her during the university’s Homecoming festivities, just four days before her death in October 2018.

“Mercile taught me so much about how to live a life of giving through hard work and humility,” he said. “In that sense, I, too, am one of her students. I will be indebted to her forever for that. Like all of her mentees, I still feel her quiet energy pushing and prodding me to do better on this day and every day.”

Mackenzie Straub x’22 (pictured) was one of 796 incoming students during the 2018–19 academic year receiving free tuition through Bucky’s Tuition Promise. Jeff Miller

The first brainchild of the UW’s new Student Success Through Applied Research (SSTAR) Lab, Bucky’s Tuition Promise, has provided financial relief to nearly one-quarter of the Wisconsin-resident students in the 2018–19 incoming class.

By identifying a sustainable way to simplify the financial aid process for in-state undergraduates — covering four years of tuition and segregated fees for freshmen meeting income-level criteria — the SSTAR Lab created a solution to help the Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) provide more student support.

And it aims to do more. Although the lab began research on Bucky’s Tuition Promise more than a year and a half ago, SSTAR celebrated its grand opening — with a new office and classroom space tucked into OSFA — earlier this year.

“We as financial aid practitioners really were looking for ways to be more creative and innovative with how we do business and how we award funds to students,” says Derek Kindle, the UW’s director of student financial aid. As a result, OSFA decided to bring in Nicholas Hillman — an associate professor in the School of Education who studies higher-education finance and policy research — to provide his expertise and to direct the SSTAR Lab.

With nationwide concerns about college affordability, the SSTAR Lab, which also employs graduate students, aims to conduct financial-aid research that leads to practical and lasting solutions. Its direct partnership with the financial aid office is a rare one in the field — to Hillman’s knowledge, it’s the only lab of its type at a university.

“There’s just a big gap between what we do as academics and what practitioners need to solve problems in real time,” he says. “I think people are doing a lot of really innovative work with financial aid, but nothing in this format where we’re working in partnership with practitioners to help solve problems.”

Katie Vaughn ’03, a senior university relations specialist for the College of Letters & Science, shares her spirit during April’s Day of the Badger. Joelle Stewart

The university celebrated its inaugural spring day of giving on April 9, as the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA) encouraged alumni and friends to go online and make gifts to the school, college, or UW cause of their choice. Billed as Day of the Badger, the event featured 1,848 minutes of pure fun, spirit, and generosity summed up in the call to “give back, wear red, and stay connected.” (The 1848 figure is a nod to the year of the university’s founding.)

“People from all across the globe used this day to get connected to the UW,” says John Grice, WFAA’s director of annual giving. He added that donors could choose from more than 140 areas, academic departments, and causes, such as preventing student food insecurity and enhancing scholarships.

The day generated lots of positive energy, as well as:

• more than 5,000 gifts
• more than $1.8 million
• upward of $369,000 in matching gifts
• gifts from every state, more than 14 countries, and four continents

Many campus units shared their excitement as they watched totals grow online in real time, providing friendly competition as momentum built. And more than 16,660 social media engagements using the hashtag #dayofthebadger demonstrated alumni pride, including messages from former student-athletes Michael Finley ’14, Carey Lohrenz ’90, Mark Tauscher ’99, MS’03, and Melvin Gordon x’14. Gordon tweeted: “Blessed to have been able to go to the best university in the country!!! So so so proud to be able to call myself a badger.”

Donors posted thank-yous to academic departments for opening doors, to the vet school for saving pets’ lives, and to retiring band director Mike Leckrone. Other comments were more general, such as “I can’t believe I got to go to school here!” and “Thanks so much for helping all of us Badgers pay it forward.”

First-year students link arms and sing ‘Varsity’ at the end of the Chancellor’s Convocation for New Students, a Wisconsin Welcome event. Jeff Miller

For Mackenzie Straub x’22, the good news just kept coming. Shortly after being accepted to UW–Madison, she learned that her tuition and fees would be covered.

The high school senior from Sister Bay, Wisconsin, is among students who will benefit from Bucky’s Tuition Promise beginning this fall. The major new initiative pledges to cover four years of tuition and segregated fees for any incoming Wisconsin freshman whose family’s annual household adjusted gross income is $56,000 or less — roughly the state’s median family income.

Transfer students from Wisconsin who meet the same criteria will receive two years of tuition and segregated fees.

“We are 100 percent grateful,” says Straub’s mom, Carol Straub, a substitute school teacher who lost her husband to cancer four years ago. “This takes away so much of the financial stress.”

In announcing the initiative in February, Chancellor Rebecca Blank called it another step in making the state’s flagship public university affordable for Wisconsin students. “Our goal is to ensure that anyone who is admitted can afford to be a Badger,” she said.

Eligibility is based solely on one line from a family’s federal tax return. Only income, not assets, will be used to determine eligibility, an important consideration in an agricultural state where many farm families may have high reported assets but low incomes, Blank says.

“We want this effort to be a boon for families in smaller towns and rural parts of the state,” she says.

The initiative is expected to cover more than 800 students in each incoming class of freshmen and transfer students. Funding will come from private gifts and other institutional resources, not state tax dollars.

Getting to share the good news with students and high school guidance counselors has become “one of the best parts of my job,” says Greg Offerman, who oversees outreach and advising efforts for the Office of Student Financial Aid. “A few people thought it was some sort of joke circulating on the internet. They thought it was too good to be true.”