The Darden School and the Darden School Foundation offer a wide range of scholarship opportunities to many students each year. Through donor-endowed funds and the Darden Annual Fund, students are awarded scholarships based on their merit, financial need, and a range of other factors including professional interest, geographic location and diversity.
Despite the variety of scholarship opportunities already offered, Darden lacked a program designed to offer the most prestigious scholarships. In 2020, the Oculus Fellowships program was launched. This new scholarship program not only provides full-tuition financial benefits — it also serves as a landing pad of community and support for the four students who were selected in the program’s inaugural year.
Named for the Oculus — the circular opening at the apex of the Dome Room in the Rotunda — the fellowships represent the illumination that outstanding students and their ideas bring to the University and to the Darden School.
Wade Clement, Alex Federinko, Lucy King and Rachel Sorrells — arrived on Grounds in Charlottesville after being selected through an exclusive competition for their outstanding academic ability, past achievement and potential to be visionary leaders in business.
Federinko said the fellows are thinking beyond just their impact on the Oculus Fellows program to the impact the Oculus Fellows program can have outside the walls of Darden. “There’s an opportunity to create positive change and help rectify inequities we may see in business and society,” he said. “We continue to generate ideas on what this will look like, but we’re excited to work with university executives to bring the ideas to reality.”
Read the full story and learn more about the self-named “Oculi” on the Darden Report.
