The Davis UWC Scholars Program and our scholars are committed to building cross-cultural understanding across U.S. campuses and ultimately throughout the world in this century. The stability of our world, and ensuring America’s place in it, demand no less than an initiative this large in scale, innovative in design, and as powerful in impact.

Our Scholars
Davis United World College (UWC) Scholars are exceptional young people who have graduated from a UWC school and then matriculated at selected U.S. colleges or universities. The UWC experience—which brings students from around the world to live and learn together in one of 18 locations on five continents—has challenged them academically and personally, expanded their horizons exponentially, and shown them how to build understanding from diversity.

Once UWC graduates enroll in one of our partner U.S. colleges or universities, our program provides financial support for their undergraduate educations through institutional grants that support need-based scholarships for Davis UWC Scholars.

Our Purpose
Our strategic objective is to advance international understanding through education. The program is built on two assumptions: 1) that promising future leaders from a broad range of cultures should be afforded greater educational opportunities and serve to accelerate global networking; 2) that these educational opportunities take place at leading U.S. colleges and universities, in the belief that these American schools will become more effective learning communities for all their students by becoming more internationally diverse and globally engaged.

By supporting students from many countries who are energized by the UWC mission of building understanding in active, personal ways, the program exemplifies how diversity can contribute to a much richer education and to a more internationally oriented undergraduate experience for everyone on campus. Since 2000, the program has grown into the largest international scholarship program for undergraduates in the world. 

Shelby M.C. Davis funds the Davis United World College Scholars Program. It is a commitment involving tens of millions of dollars per year. All graduates of UWC schools who gain admission on their own merits to selected U.S. colleges or universities qualify for need-based scholarship support through the program. We currently support over 3,800 scholars at 99 partner colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Hear from Davis UWC graduates from Mauritius about what the program meant to them. 

Hear from the program's founders and alumni in this four-minute video filmed April 2010.