Christin Danchi

The Heritage Scholarship Campaign

In August of 2015, three fellow students (Laurel Beatty, Katie Russell, Alyssa Wang) and I began a fundraising campaign to provide a new substantial source of undergraduate merit scholarship for the Carnegie Mellon School of Music where we were students. We started with the goal of raising a minimum $50,000 to endow a scholarship fund at the university. Some of us faced the burden of college loans while others had benefited significantly from financial assistance throughout our college years. With student debt holding back talented undergraduate musicians across the country, this was a chance to give back to our alma mater, ease this burden for the next generation of music Tartans, and say thank you to those who had helped us.  

Thanks to the combined efforts of friends, alumni, faculty, staff, and students of the School of Music, the campaign raised over $170,000 in eight months.  This enormous success was in great part due to two very generous matching donations of $50,000+ from CMU President Subra Suresh and the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts, led by Dean Dan Martin and School of Music Head Denis Colwell. 

The Heritage Scholarship Fund remains open to receive donations and will continue to grow and allow new students to pursue their passions in music.  If you would like to donate to the fund and continue this legacy of giving back and helping the next generation of young musicians, please visit the Carnegie Mellon School of Music scholarship website.