In 2017, the Clark Foundation made an investment of $219.5 million in the University of Maryland College Park (UMD). While the Clark Foundation’s “Building Together: An Investment for Maryland” primarily focuses on the A. James Clark School of Engineering, it also includes the university-wide Maryland Promise Program (MPP) to support students pursuing any major who are from Maryland or Washington, DC. To ensure the success and longevity of the program, UMD and the Clark Foundation created a matching gift scholarship campaign to raise $100 million in need-based aid for undergraduate students. Students are selected based on their academic excellence, leadership potential, and interest in social impact. In addition to financial assistance, MPP provides its Scholars with wraparound support including individual coaching, experiential learning, a curriculum in design thinking, professional development workshops, community engagement, and networking opportunities.
Inspired by the life of A. James Clark, who was only able to attend UMD because he received a scholarship, MPP builds upon his commitment to provide promising young people with access to an education. “Mr. Clark was an engineer, but he loved the entire institution at College Park,” said Natalie Grandison, the Foundation’s Director of Higher Education and Strategy. “It’s fitting that Building Together’s biggest cross-campus initiative is scholarships, because that’s what allowed him to attend UMD.”
By creating MPP, the Foundation and UMD were intent on creating a scholarship program rooted in Maryland and DC communities and preparing the region’s future leaders with the skills and experiences they will need to succeed in school and in their chosen profession. “Mr. Clark believed that if you gave a person a chance, they would create greatness,” Darryll Pines, the President of UMD, remarked.
Envisioning a Campus-Wide Program
To ensure the success of the program, the Clark Foundation worked closely with the university to develop MPP’s structure and trusted its expertise to create an enriching program for students.
“We really worked together to help them envision what a marquee College Park scholarship program could and should look like,” Grandison said. “The university is also very willing to take feedback and ideas, and they leverage resources they already have on campus so they can implement MPP in ways that work for them.”
Georgia Wood, UMD Assistant Director for the Building Together investment, believes that the Foundation’s trust in UMD has enabled MPP to provide security and stability to students who might otherwise struggle financially or in adjusting to college. “The Clark Foundation’s approach has enabled us to give students wraparound support and help them feel secure and safe as they go through their college experience,” Wood said.
Staff from both UMD and the Clark Foundation emphasized that MPP’s campus-wide reach has enabled Mr. Clark’s legacy of supporting education to touch UMD’s entire campus. “In expanding beyond engineering, the Clark Foundation has really impacted the university and its students in a transformative way,” Wood emphasized, adding that MPP Scholars can explore different fields with the potential to become inspired in unexpected ways, without fear of losing their scholarship.
Inspiring Others to Donate
To reach UMD’s ambitious $100 million fundraising goal for MPP, the Clark Foundation and the university wanted to inspire others to support it. Together they set up a matching fund campaign that would double the size of every donor’s scholarship gift, up to $50 million.
The ability to amplify the impact of their gift attracted numerous new donors to MPP. Paul Mandell, UMD class of 1995, said that the Clark Foundation’s match was key to his decision to support the program. “The gratitude of the Scholars and their commitment to paying it forward are deeply encouraging. The MPP has changed their lives, and this growing cohort of driven achievers seems eager to do the same for others,” he said.
“We can’t overstate how impactful this matching program has been,” said Wood. “That’s 257 new scholarships at the university that didn’t exist a few years ago before the Clark Foundation’s Building Together investment. The sheer amount of scholarship money that we now have, and can use to support and retain students, is incredible.”
MPP also engages donors on a more personal level. Those giving $50,000 or more to MPP may name a scholarship in an individual or organization’s honor. Additionally, every spring, donors can meet and engage with the Scholars, who organize an event to highlight the program’s impact. This gathering helps cultivate relationships between students and donors, who “really see the impact of this scholarship and really buy into it,” Wood remarked. UMD’s approach to attracting new donors proved successful, as the MPP campaign surpassed its fundraising goal in January 2025.
Programming for Change Agents
Financial assistance is just one aspect of MPP. Substantial and thoughtful programming for MPP Scholars aims to develop them as leaders and problem-solvers, with broad-based professional skills and a commitment to social change. Michelle Udeli, MPP Program Director, believes the program places uniquely creative expectations on students, noting that, “By the time the students leave, they feel like they are change agents and that they can utilize these skills in any industry to create meaningful change.” Much of the programming is cohort-based, with Scholars meeting monthly for sessions on individual identity, leadership, collaboration and professional development. They also participate in workshops that focus on topics including team building, ethical dilemmas in leadership, and organizational structures.
In addition to the cohort-based components, Scholars also receive individual support to prepare them for life after graduation. With studies showing that many recent college graduates struggle with time management, procrastination and receiving constructive feedback, Udeli is intentional about how she prepares the Scholars to enter the workforce. As part of that strategy, she engages Scholars in what they call “success coaching,” individual contact with Scholars that ranges from asking them to set goals at the beginning of each semester to focusing on time management and ensuring they get enough sleep to be productive. “We celebrate them, and we’re always challenging them to be 1% better,” Udeli said. “We check in on their goals, challenges they’ve encountered and strategies to overcome them.”
Grandison credits Udeli’s dedication and vision in creating the strong and sustainable programming that has made MPP a success. “Michelle’s ability to develop the program in a way that strategically aligns the Foundation’s goals, students’ needs, and employers’ desired skills—while navigating the complexities of a flagship public university—has been invaluable. As a problem solver, she brings creativity, collaboration, and authenticity to every aspect of her work. Each opportunity within the program is intentionally designed, ensuring meaningful impact and transforming the futures of countless students.”
Scholars Build a Community
One of the Scholars who benefited from the support Udeli and UMD provides is Franshesca Orellana Castellanos, a senior majoring in physiology and neurobiology. She said that MPP enabled her to attend UMD, which otherwise might have financially been beyond the reach of her family. “When I got the email from Maryland Promise, I was finally able to see a vision that this was attainable.”
In addition to the scholarship, Castellanos credits the program for helping her make friends and find a community on campus. Describing herself as shy, Castellanos felt lonely when arriving at UMD, finding it challenging to connect with people who shared and understood her background and life circumstances. But at the first MPP event, Castellanos said she met three other Latina students and instantly bonded with them.
“A lot of us have endured different adversities or life experiences. There are so many underlying factors to financial hardships, and there are things that we’ve endured that other people may not be able to understand,” Castellanos said. “With MPP, I was able to connect with people and automatically know that we’re on the same page. Many of us had to help provide for our families or had to grow up a lot faster, which are things that other people simply don’t understand.”
A Stepping Stone for New Opportunities
Having grown from an inaugural cohort of eight students in 2019 to over 200 in 2024, Udeli is now preparing dozens of students every year to leverage their experience as an MPP Scholar when applying for jobs and graduate school. “We encourage them not just to include it on their resume as an honor, but to describe the particular skills they have learned that help set them apart,” she said. “By combining their academics with the professional development of this program, they stand out from their peers in a really amazing way. We want the Scholars to see that this is a stepping stone for their career path.”
Udeli also believes that as more Scholars graduate and highlight their MPP experiences, they will raise the program’s profile and potentially serve as inspiration for other schools looking to develop something similar. “I want our program to be known as a premier program across the nation that attracts really great talent, especially students who may not be able to afford college, and for other schools to emulate the work that we’re doing.”
As the Scholars progress in their careers, Udeli aspires for them to use their leadership skills and experiences to make a significant difference. “I would love to see a student in the future do something like Mr. Clark did and decide they want to give back to their university or their community.”