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At the University of San Diego, students are called changemakers because they are committed to creating a better future, one based on ethical conduct and compassionate service. 

That’s why USD — a liberal arts institution that combines a revered Catholic Intellectual Tradition with a 21st-century comprehensive education — is recognized as an Ashoka Changemaker Campus, one of only 30 in the United States. In fact, USD is now ranked among the top 100 Universities in the nation, alongside schools that are hundreds of years older.

But, much like the inspiring Toreros comprising its diverse student body, USD would rather prepare itself for the future than rest on its laurels.

That’s why they’ve launched the Leading Change Campaign, an ambitious fund-raising initiative that seeks to raise $300-million to bolster everything from teachers and tech to financial aid, new facilities and community service programs. The campaign is not only designed to improve the educations of current students, but — in the USD tradition of paying it forward — those of students to come.

It’s an objective echoed by USD President James T. Harris III, DEd.

“Each element of the campaign is an effort to affect change that is real, measurable, and sustainable — to prepare succeeding generations to be compassionate stewards of humanity and all God’s creation.”

To get there, however, they need our help. All contributions, large and small, make a difference, because change starts with each one of us doing what we can to pitch in. Visit leadingchange.sandiego.edu to explore ways you can help today’s changemakers for the challenges we all face in the world today.

How will your contributions help? Consider some of the innovative and hands-on programs already in place at USD, then see how they’ll benefit when the Leading Change Campaign goal is met.

Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering
Established in honor of Donald Shiley, who invented the life-saving Bjork-Shiley heart valve in his garage, USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering is a place where students dream, design, build, and become the inventors of tomorrow.

As part of Leading Change: The Campaign for USD, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering will build a Bioengineering Garage, a Sustainability Garage, and a Cyber Security Studio. The campaign offers an opportunity to reimagine the curriculum so a thermodynamics course won’t just teach students how to use heat, but will inspire them to create cooking stoves or energy systems that change lives in developing countries.

To help fund tomorrow’s Changemaker engineers, click here.

Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science
There’s a nursing shortage in this country, and it starts with a lack of faculty to educate the healthcare professionals of tomorrow.

Leading Change: The Campaign for USD dreamed of the Betty and Bob Beyster Institute for Nursing Research, Advanced Practice, and Simulation. The first of its kind in the nation, the Beyster Institute doubles the Hahn School of Nursing’s research and teaching footprint. It features a Nursing Simulation Center, PhD research library, classrooms, offices, and research space. With this new center, not only will USD nurses make a difference in California, but in communities across the nation and around the world.

To help fund tomorrow’s Changemaker nurses, click here.

To learn about the other innovative USD programs — in business, law, leadership, and peacebuilding — and services that will benefit from the Leading Change Campaign, as well as ways you can help, visit leadingchange.sandiego.edu.

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