Student Opportunity | Capital Campaign

YOU HAVE THE POWER To Change Lives

ENSURE STUDENT Opportunity & Success

Student opportunity is about making college accessible and affordable to all students based on their potential – not on their ability to pay. Student success is about investing in people and programs who support our students, so that they can graduate in four years. And student success and opportunity are about minimizing the amount of money that our students need to borrow so that they are able to pursue fulfilling careers and lead meaningful lives.

Like many of you, many of our students are the first in their families to attend college. They arrive on our campus with a sense of purpose – not a sense of entitlement. Please help us enable our students to fulfill their purpose.

Student with professor

FUNDING Opportunities

Scholarships that will allow us to provide merit- and need-based aid.
Financial resources to keep students in school when temporary hardships arise.
Mentoring programs to ensure a smooth transition from high school to college.
Student success initiatives such as career readiness programs and student success centers in each academic college.
Renovation of Bracken Library to support more collaborative learning and new technologies.
Student-athlete support, because success in the classroom leads to success on the field.

40%

Of Ball State students are part of the first generation in their family to attend college.

25%

Of Ball State students are under-represented minorities.

#1

Ranked in social mobility among Indiana colleges and universities.

$21,000

Annual cost of college for a full-time, in-state Ball State student living on campus.

80%

Of Ball State students qualify for federal financial aid.

95%

Of current Ball State aid is an unfunded tuition discount, resulting in about $40 million in lost tuition revenue annually.

Quotation Mark

“It’s just beautiful how generosity never dies. Once someone gives, it just keeps going.”

— Kirsten Westerman, ’14

THE RIPPLE EFFECT OF Your Gift

The 2008 recession hit Kirsten Westerman’s family hard.

Her father lost his job as a tool-and-die maker, and her mother, a real-estate agent, struggled to sell homes when the housing bubble burst. Kirsten’s dreams of attending a school of music to study flute performance were uncertain.

“There was no money coming in at all,” she said.

But Ball State came through with three scholarships that made college affordable for the family. She graduated in 2014 with a music performance degree.

As of 2021, Westerman was working for the Warrior Music Foundation. Based in Washington D.C., the foundation helps veterans treat their post-traumatic stress disorder through songwriting and composition.

“When you give to support students, there is a ripple effect of that generosity,” she said. “It is quite literally because somebody gave toward scholarships that I am now able to help veterans of Afghanistan. It’s just beautiful how generosity never dies. Once someone gives, it just keeps going.”

Ball State University