Adopt A Student At LUCG

The Adopt-A-Student Program is a financial assistance program run by the Office for Financial Aid and Scholarships (OFAS) of LUCG. The program provides supplementary support to students with urgent financial needs. It aims to match financially challenged and at-risk students with donors who are interested in helping these disadvantaged students continue to attend their institution and achieve their academic dreams. Adopt-a-Student allows us the ability to make a big difference in individual students’ lives with minimal institutional resources invested.

A significant portion of the LUCG student population belongs to middle to low-income families. Maintaining financial support to cover daily costs of studying can be a ceaseless trial for these students during their two to four year stay in the University. A number of them seek part-time employment to provide for their daily needs and support their academic requirements. However, this often adversely affects their academic performance, which has led to many of these students dropping out of the University.

The Adopt-a-Student Program was conceived to address these problems by providing supplementary support to students with urgent financial needs. It acts as a safety net where students are given allowances to keep them studying in the University. Through the Adopt-a-Student program, students are given support while they work on their requirements to qualify in more comprehensive financial assistance programs. After students apply for “adoption” they are listed for donors to search. Upon being selected for “adoption” the student is notified and the donor will be given progress reports during the academic year. Donors feel the direct impact their gift has when directed to a specific student, knowing that it could be the lifeline that made the difference in completing their education and achieving their career aspirations. Students receive a number of benefits in addition to your financial support.

(1) Personalized assistance that students would not normally receive from overarching plans that are not personalized. This allows students to receive the most useful assistance possible and increases the likelihood of academic success.

(2) Build a personal connection between student adoptee and donors facilitating lasting social and community support.

(3) Provides a sense of accountability to the student fostering increased motivation and academic success.

(4) This program allows us to target the interests of donors with student adoptees such as an Engineer wanting to help prospective engineering students. This can also lead to the added benefit of Adopters becoming mentors to their student adoptees.

Donors also have the opportunity to become further involved in their students’ academics progress by having (1) opportunities to meet with their student;

(2) invitations to conferences and events the student may be involved in;

(3) progress reports and photos of their student mailed after each semester by our agency;

(4) correspondence from their student. Donors to the adoption program share in the student’s experience while funds generated from the annual Adopt-A-Student program help maintain stipends and scholarships for needy students at LUCG. Participation in the Adopt-A-Student program is GHC2,000 ($400). Each additional sponsorship is GHC1,000 ($200). After your donation is received, you will be matched with one of LUCG’s needy students.