The Founders

They saw the need for expanding educational opportunities and scholarships for promising youth from around the world.  They also saw the need for the campuses of American colleges and universities to become more global communities. 

They believed—and their program exemplifies—the conviction that future leaders will be better prepared having lived and learned as students with those who are different from one another.  It is their profound hope that creating connections among such future leaders will foster greater international understanding and enhance the possibilities for a better world.

The Davis UWC Scholars Program currently supports over 4,000 students at nearly a hundred American colleges and universities which have partnered in a shared commitment to the UWC mission of peace through education. Cumulatively, the program has supported over 14,000 students and is continuing to grow.

25th Anniversary Reflections of the Co-founders

How it all began: At the very end of the 20th century, Shelby Davis was shifting from a hugely successful career on Wall Street to becoming a philanthropist, and I (as president of UWC-USA) was keenly aware of how few scholarships there were for motivated students with limited financial resources after graduating from their UWC secondary schools. Shelby and I came together from very different vantage points, but we discovered promising common ground—both believing in expanding educational opportunities for students and wanting American college campuses to become more international communities in the 21st century. 

Shelby and I became partners in philanthropy to expand scholarships for young talent from around the world and to help make American college campuses more global communities. We began our shared odyssey, as many start-ups do, with a pilot program beginning in 2000 with 43 scholars on five campuses. Today, we have just over 4,500 scholars on over 100 campuses. Cumulatively, the Davis UWC Scholars Program has supported over 15,000 Davis UWC Scholars. 

We believe—and still do—that future leaders from the U.S. and their counterparts from around the world will be better prepared by having lived and learned as students with those who are different from one another. Our program exemplifies this conviction of diversity. It is our profound hope that creating such connections and relationships will foster greater international understanding, build more mutual respect, and improve the chances for a more peaceful world than we know today.

We once saw a message on a bulletin board at one of the UWC schools that said something to the effect of: “There are two types of people in the world. There are dreamers, and there are doers. But what the world needs most is DREAMERS WHO DO!” Yes, dreamers who do—that’s how we think of our scholars and their potential. By investing in more and more educational opportunities for UWC graduates, we believe we are sowing seeds that are taking root and shaping lives that will contribute to making the world a better place. That is what Davis philanthropy is all about, and we are all in, believing there will be many positive returns on our investments.

The landscape of higher education has changed dramatically over the past 25 years. Institutions of higher education have come to understand that having more international perspectives benefits all aspects of college life, from classroom discussions to residential life, to student clubs and activities. As a result, the number of international undergraduate students studying in the U.S. has increased exponentially. We are proud to have been a key driver of that change, and we look forward to another 25 years of growth and impact.

Founder Bios

Shelby M.C. Davis is the founder of and a senior adviser to Davis Selected Advisers, L.P., a mutual fund management company managing more than $40 billion. A history major at Princeton, Class of 1958, he became the Bank of New York’s youngest vice president since Alexander Hamilton before starting his firm.

Since retiring from the world of finance, Davis has focused on “giving back” through the UWC movement, its students, and its graduates. Davis’s philanthropy has invested hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly for need-based scholarships for students from over 150 countries.  To broaden access and diversity at all the UWC schools, Davis’s philanthropy has created the “Dare to Dream” initiative.  For graduates of the UWC schools, it created the Davis UWC Scholars Program which has grown over the past twenty years from a small pilot program into the world’s largest international scholarship program for undergraduates. Davis, partnering with Geier throughout, remains personally engaged with his philanthropy and its possibilities.

Philip O. Geier currently serves as executive director of the Davis United World College Scholars Program. He is a leader in international education and often serves as an independent consultant specializing in strategic innovation for education and transformative philanthropy.

Geier earned his B.A. with honors at Williams College in 1970 and both his M.A. (1975) and Ph.D. (1980) from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He taught history and American Studies at Dickinson College and was awarded a Fulbright in 1977-78 to be a lecturer at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Geier’s passion for cross-cultural learning grew out of that Fulbright year and the remainder of his career (including a second Fulbright) has been devoted to fostering citizen diplomacy through positions at non-profit organizations, foundations, and educational institutions.  His role as president of UWC-USA from 1993-2005 led to the partnership with Shelby Davis and the resulting transformative philanthropy that is still evolving.