DaVida Anderson strives to help underserved learners succeed.

As a doctoral student in higher education and student affairs in the University of Iowa College of Education, her research focuses on educational disparities that create challenges, such as economic inequality. She’s also worked to create a nonprofit—Strong Sister, Silly Sister Inc.—to motivate female students to achieve academic success. DaVida’s efforts help empower individuals to overcome obstacles and create better futures.

“With my research, I hope to be an advocate for those who do not have a voice and to provide better insight into the challenges they encounter,” says DaVida, whose work and journey would not be possible without private support.

When DaVida was deciding where to complete her doctoral degree, scholarship assistance was a driving influence. At Iowa, she receives financial support from the ACT Scholars Program, which promotes multiculturalism and inclusion and was created during the For Iowa. Forever More. campaign.

“The ACT Scholars Program provides an opportunity for underserved learners, like me, to be full-time scholars,” says DaVida. “For a long time, socioeconomic status has been a barrier for a lot of students. Without the ACT scholarship, I would not be able to afford to be a student and focus on my education.”

While ACT’s support has helped DaVida financially, it has also helped her research interests. She worked in ACT’s Center for Equity in Learning, which supports research that focuses on closing gaps in equity, opportunity, and achievement. “This rare opportunity has made me an ambassador for ACT because their mission and my personal passions strongly correlate,” she says.

In 2010, when University of Iowa College of Engineering professor Jerry Schnoor won a prestigious national award, he knew just what he’d do with his winnings.

His colleague, Craig Just, assistant professor in the UI Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, had been advising the student chapters of Engineers Without Borders USA and Engineers for a Sustainable World. The groups had recently made a five-year commitment to helping the people of Kobriti, a small village in Ghana.

Jerry’s $50,000 gift to the program would help Craig take students on the long journey to Kobriti to work on water sanitation, solar energy, and other basic infrastructure projects.

What Jerry didn’t know is that Craig and his wife, Tracy, who is a hygienist in the UI College of Dentistry, had been mulling their own gift. Inspired by Jerry’s generosity, Craig and Tracy matched his gift, resulting in a $100,000 boost for the UI Engineers for a Sustainable World Fund.

Over the next five years, Craig took teams of engineering, medical, and international studies students on annual five-week trips to Ghana. “The people there know exactly what they need,” says Craig. “They just don’t have the resources to make the necessary improvements.”

"There is so much need," says Jerry. "More funding means more students can go, and more good can be done."

In fact, Iowa students are now also doing sustainable, community-driven water and sanitation projects in Nicaragua.

Thanks to the generosity of these remarkable professors, UI students are solving real-world problems. "And that," says Craig, "is what engineers do."

Tyler Finchum is a farm kid who became a business whiz at the University of Iowa.

When he was a junior in high school, Tyler brainstormed a way to help his father, a farmer near Muscatine, Iowa, combat the problem of lost operating manuals. “It stuck in my head that there had to be an easier way to find manuals,” Tyler says—and a new business was born.

Farm Manuals Fast sells digital copies of farm equipment instruction manuals for nearly 500 implements, going all the way back to John Deere’s Poppin’ Johnnies of the 1930s.

“I had no idea there was such a need for a business like this,” says Tyler, who attended the UI Henry B. Tippie College of Business and was named Student Entrepreneur of the Year by the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization in 2014. “I started it to get some experience in developing a new business and to have something to put on my résumé.”

Tyler was able to grow his fledgling business with help from the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC). JPEC, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, is a cross-disciplinary center that began with a visionary donation from John and Mary Pappajohn, who wanted to expand entrepreneurial education and promote job creation throughout Iowa.

Generous contributions from the Pappajohns and others during the For Iowa. Forever More. campaign have allowed JPEC to continue providing everything from donor-funded offices and meeting spaces to privately supported pitch competitions and start-up awards. The center helps students such as Tyler—who was a 2015 pitch-competition winner—make the most of their UI entrepreneurial experiences.

Now this Iowa entrepreneur’s company is so popular that it’s a top Google result for online “farm manual” searches. And Tyler has been able to create a foundation that donates operating manuals to poor farmers around the world.

“I sort of got lucky and felt the need to give back,” says Tyler, who is grateful for his UI opportunities—and already looking ahead to his next big idea.