Support the Young Scholars Program

Although our giving page is no longer active, you can still donate. If you would like to provide any additional support to our project, please do so here.

The Young Scholars Program (YSP) was founded in 1988 as an initiative to increase diversity at The Ohio State University. Housed within the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), YSP’s mission is to improve pre-college preparation, retention and degree completion among academically talented, low-income, first-generation students.

YSP recruits pre-college students from nine of the largest urban school districts in Ohio: Akron Public Schools, Canton City Schools, Cincinnati Public Schools, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Columbus City Schools, Dayton Public Schools, Lorain City Schools, Toledo Public Schools and Youngstown City Schools. Each year, YSP serves 1,000 students state-wide, including over 700 in grades 8-12 and 350 undergraduate students.

The Young Scholars Program is seeking funds to provide technology to student participants across the nine YSP school districts. Having accessible technology for students enables students to continue involvement in the program, access to academic requirements and addresses the technological needs for students in districts with minimal access. COVID-19 exposed the disparate access to technology among YSP students. This exposure affirmed our need to have program-provided devices for Young Scholars so learning and program engagement is not interrupted.

The YSP is seeking funding to convert its Samuel DuBois-Cook Summer Academy from a summer brick and mortar program to an online program. The funding needed is for the purchase of 150 laptop computers, as well as 150 Wi-Fi hot spot plans to ensure students have the necessary equipment for the online Summer Academy.

If you are interested in supporting YSP, please consider contributing to our Buckeye Funder campaign which provides direct support to the Young Scholars Summer Academy. If you need any further information on ways to pay forward, please contact ODI Director of Development, Melissa Fleming.