Endowments and Scholarships

There are many ways to help SVA, depending on a donor's interests and priorities:

Endowment Gifts:
Student Aid and Scholarship
SVA has made a commitment to offer the finest academic opportunities to some of the neediest yet most deserving students in the city and surrounding communities. To continue that educational mission, a scholarship endowment fund was established.

Faculty Compensation
SVA is very mindful that the issue of faculty compensation is a critical one. Teacher salaries and benefits must be improved so that the best and finest teachers will be able to afford to stay at SVA to share their talents with the students.

Annual Funds:
Scholarships
The scholarship fund was created to give financial assistance to in-need, promising scholars who show consistent academic achievement. Donors may offer partial or full scholarships to individual students.

Tuition Aid
Tuition aid donations help the most financially in-need students without regard to their level of academic achievement(although all recipients must maintain passing grades). Sixty-three percent of the students at SVA qualify for the Federal Lunch Program.

General Operating
General operating gifts help SVA to make up the difference between tuition income ($4,600 per student in 2008-2009) and the true cost of an SVA education ($8,600+ in 2008-2009).

Program Enhancements
Some SVA donors want to support specific academic or extracurricular programs or subjects, such as religious studies, literature, performing arts, mathematics, science, ecology, foreign language, healthcare, or sports.

Faculty Gift Fund
The faculty gift fund is used to make special one-time gifts to the faculty during the Christmas season. Faculty members make great financial sacrifices to teach at SVA and this fund offers some end-of-the-year relief for them.

SIC Program Director Chair
An emphasis on community service is one of the distinguishing characteristics of an SVA education. For more than 20 years, that commitment has been expressed in a four-year service education program, Students in Community (SIC). Through the SIC Program, SVA student volunteers work in nonprofit organizations throughout the city – in nursing home facilities, hospitals, daycare centers, schools, food banks, and shelters. Donors with a special interest in community service can help to fund the salary of the program's director.