Giving Opportunities

At Johns Hopkins, it is hard not to be inspired by our students, but many are hampered by financial limitations. We believe all Hopkins students should have equal opportunity to follow their chosen courses of study to the fullest extent. Continued support of the following efforts will enable students to participate in the profound and life-changing academic experiences that happen here.

• Endowed Scholarships: With additional financial aid support, we can ensure that our bright, creative students can access and better afford a Hopkins education.
• Research Opportunities for Every Undergraduate: As the nation’s first research university, we want every Hopkins undergraduate to have the opportunity to engage in meaningful research so they can build skills in deep critical thinking and analysis, resiliency and creativity in problem-solving, and strong communication practices.
• ASPIRE Grant (Formerly DURA): Recipients become intimately familiar with the research process, including how to identify a problem, pose questions, gather and analyze data, and defend and present their conclusions — skills that are valued across all fields.
• Graduate Fellowships: Fellowships enable our graduate students to immerse themselves in the rigor of high-level academic inquiry, support their work as teachers, help fund opportunities like attending academic conferences, and provide resources for archival or site-based research as they prepare to be the scholars and scientists of tomorrow.
• Dean’s Teaching Fellows: Designed to foster innovation in the undergraduate curriculum and career skills for graduate students, these competitive fellowships give graduate students experience in creating and teaching their own undergraduate course — crucial professional training for their future work.

One of the characteristics that makes Johns Hopkins unique is its cadre of world-renowned professors, scientists, and researchers. Our faculty members hold some of the world’s most esteemed prizes and awards. The competition for these highly skilled individuals, however, is intense. We are constantly challenged to attract and retain scholars representing a wide range of disciplines and cultures, who are leaders in their fields, and who will inspire our students. Your support will enable us to offer resources to our faculty.

• Faculty Innovation Awards: With the help of generous donors, we have started a fund for scientists and professors that will either position them to win federal funding for their research or that will enable them to move groundbreaking research to the next level.
• Endowed Professorships: Give our school the power to recruit and retain talented scholars. Endowed Professorships also allow academic departments to pursue new interdisciplinary directions.
• Fund for the Future: This unique effort will provide support to help us attract and keep top-notch researchers and scholars in all disciplines, with an emphasis on growing diversity and inclusive excellence among our faculty.
• Start-up Support for New Faculty: Often new professors arrive on campus already involved in groundbreaking research projects, and to accelerate their impact they may need funding for a postdoctoral student or lab support, including specialized equipment.

From uncovering rare finds in archaeological digs in Egypt to developing a drug that can slow the ravaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers and scholars at Johns Hopkins understand that broad skills are needed when tackling big ideas. Working across disciplines and collaborating with other divisions within Johns Hopkins leverages our strong foundation for finding new knowledge. With support for new ideas for interdisciplinary projects, we can build the foundations for new discovery.

• New Opportunities for Research: Students and faculty thrive when they are exposed to various disciplines and given the tools to explore new ideas beyond the limits of their chosen field. Support would provide stipends for interdisciplinary projects and start-up funding for new ideas.
• Global Programs: Support for global programs such as international studies, Africana studies, East Asian studies, Islamic studies, Jewish studies, and Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx studies will enable us to forge unique partnerships and programming.
• Krieger School/SAIS Initiatives: Additional support for the partnership between the Krieger School and Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies will expand our capacity to conduct major research on a global scale and create new knowledge around the world.
• Durable Research Infrastructure: Sometimes, unforeseen costs can arise in the midst of a complex research project, or a scientist might require new resources to access the university’s shared infrastructure facilities. Durable research infrastructure funds assure our scientists and scholars that their research will continue, no matter the circumstances.

Humanities studies have been at the heart of the university since its founding in 1876. Our humanities graduates direct world-class museums; work as researchers and teachers in universities, libraries, and government agencies; and run major businesses. They publish, investigate, translate, excavate, write, and do hundreds of other things for which their humanities training prepares them.

A humanities education is about content — the study of language and literature, history and art. And a humanities education is also about method: how to conduct research and analysis, how to develop and nurture the intellectual curiosity and depth that lead to unique perspectives on problem solving. In today’s environment, where we are inundated with huge amounts of information, it’s the skills we learn through the humanities — critical thinking, data analysis, careful listening, and clear writing — that enable us to identify patterns, make connections, and find answers.

• The Alexander Grass Humanities Institute: This umbrella institute will give us a bigger stage on which to showcase and share our ground-breaking research in the humanities, and will help us recruit top-tier students and faculty. With additional support, the institute will be able to bring visiting professors to campus, host international seminars, and provide stipends to graduate students.
• New Research and Programming: Creating research-based humanities courses for freshmen is just one way to provide analytical and critical thinking skills necessary for successful careers in and outside the world of scholarship.
• Hopkins at Station North: With a brand-new film center in a burgeoning arts district a mile south of the Homewood campus, Johns Hopkins is poised to compete with some of the nation’s most prestigious film schools. We are enhancing the humanities community by enriching the teaching, learning, and creation of new forms of storytelling.
• Tomorrow’s Humanities Experts: Awareness of the humanities can be raised long before students reach college age. Support is needed to help us spark the interest of young people and prospective students and bring them to campus to experience Hopkins humanities firsthand.