Student Stories: Ciara May

An HBCU student gets a helping hand from a UNCF donor, just when she needed it.

During Christmas break her senior year, Ciara May found herself back at home in Los Angeles wondering how she could finish her final semester in college. She’d made it to her final year, but simply did not have the funds to continue. “I woke up on the first day of spring classes to an e-mail saying I had been awarded exactly the amount I was short. It brought me to tears. I can’t thank UNCF and MUFG Union Bank enough.” On behalf of UNCF and MUFG Union Bank, congratulations, Ciara May.

Ciara graduated from the University of Southern California in May 2018 with a master’s degree in social entrepreneurship. She is now a Venture for America Fellow and works at UNCF-member HBCU Johnson C. Smith University in the Innovation Center as a program coordinator.

UNCF administers more than 400 academic scholarship and fellowship programs every year, and yet is only able to fund one out of every 10 requests for financial support. Learn how you can help. Call the UNCF San Francisco local office at 415.956.1018 for more information on how you can make a difference in a promising student’s life.