{"id":111831,"date":"2020-08-17T11:46:14","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T15:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=111831"},"modified":"2025-02-20T12:29:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T17:29:42","slug":"the-cartwrights-decision-to-give-back-to-ucf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/the-cartwrights-decision-to-give-back-to-ucf\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cartwrights\u2019 Decision to Give Back to UCF"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Alexander N. Cartwright<\/a> and his wife, First Lady Melinda K. Cartwright, arrived at 女仆AV in the middle of a global pandemic, knowing the foreseeable future was going to prove challenging. They knew they wanted to do their part to secure the university\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we officially took the position, we started thinking about what should we do for UCF? What should we do for everybody that\u2019s here?\u201d \u2014 President Cartwright<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cBefore we officially took the position, we started thinking about what should we do for UCF? What should we do for everybody that\u2019s here?\u201d President Cartwright says.<\/p>\n

Within the first couple weeks of arriving on campus, the Cartwrights donated $25,000 to emergency relief funds<\/a> to help immediately, and then pledged an additional $225,000 to the university to provide for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave to the areas that we value most,\u201d Cartwright says, which includes scholarships for first-generation students, as well as STEM research, the humanities, athletics<\/a> and an unrestricted fund to be used for the university\u2019s greatest needs.<\/p>\n

The Cartwrights met at the University of Iowa, where Alex earned a bachelor\u2019s and a doctoral degree in electrical and computer engineering and Melinda earned a bachelor\u2019s in music education before going back to earn a second bachelor\u2019s degree in computer science. Both were first-generation students who received funding through Pell Grants, which are subsidies provided by the U.S. government for students who demonstrate exceptional financial need. That is, until Melinda\u2019s Pell funding ran out, and she was forced to take out student loans, working as a waitress and finding other ways to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI somehow didn\u2019t qualify, so that\u2019s when I started taking out student loans and working jobs as a waitress and doing whatever I could to try and make it through,\u201d she says. \u201cWe hope to take that burden away from other students, so they can focus on their studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just one small way that we could pay back to future generations what was given to us by people who were generous,\u201d President Cartwright says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Alexander N. Cartwright and First Lady Melinda K. Cartwright have pledged a quarter million dollars to support student scholarships, STEM research, the humanities and athletics at UCF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":111833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[19309,18250,2270,3703,18081,4886],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-111831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","tag-alexander-cartwright","tag-coronavirus","tag-impact","tag-philanthropy","tag-president","tag-ucf-foundation"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Cartwrights\u2019 Decision to Give Back to UCF | 女仆AV News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Alexander N. 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