The Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity at Princeton University
With the goal of enhancing and expanding Princeton University’s fundamental commitment to the college success of talented students from first-generation, low-income and underrepresented backgrounds, the Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity will bring together the University’s nation-leading initiatives in college access and opportunity, serve as a hub for research and innovation in the field of college access and success, and inform and strengthen similar efforts at colleges and universities across the country.
The Emma Bloomberg Center will enable more students to find a pathway to success to, through, and beyond Princeton. Programs that will be expanded and integrated into the new center include the Freshman Scholars Institute (FSI); the Scholars Institute Fellows Program (SIFP); the University’s Program for Transfer, Non-Traditional and Veterans Students; the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program; the Princeton University Preparatory Program (PUPP); and the Princeton Summer Journalism Program (PSJP). These programs are designed to provide all students with the mentorship, academic enrichment and community that they need to thrive at Princeton. They empower students to successfully navigate the University’s many resources, to achieve their professional, personal and scholarly goals, and to become active leaders on campus and in the larger world.
I am forever grateful to have experienced such an incredible opportunity, and I want young people across the world, regardless of race, class or geographic origin, to access the same resources and opportunities.
Emma Bloomberg, Princeton Class of 2001
The Center will allow these programs to scale up, with the goal of both doubling in size and expanding offerings to students at other colleges and universities. In addition, the Center will serve as a home for developing new initiatives to meet emerging student needs, expanding educational outreach initiatives, and generating innovative programs to support students as they move beyond college into graduate school and/or their professional lives.
The Emma Bloomberg Center will also help develop Ph.D. candidates from groups underrepresented in academia so that college faculties better reflect society by collaborating with the national Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program and Princeton’s Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellows program to bolster, develop and spearhead initiatives in service of this work.
The Center is named for Mike Bloomberg’s daughter Emma, a member of the Princeton Class of 2001 who has focused her career on expanding access to high-quality public education and to fighting poverty in New York City.
The Emma Bloomberg Center builds on Bloomberg Philanthropies’ College Access and Success initiative, which seeks to combat undermatching and help high-achieving, lower-income students access the colleges and universities they deserve to attend, with Princeton University serving as a member school in our American Talent Initiative.
Top photo: The Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity at Princeton University will enhance and expand Princeton University’s fundamental commitment to the college success of talented students from first-generation, low-income and underrepresented backgrounds.