91´«Ã½

For nearly four decades, the Beverly Sears Endowment Grant has been a cornerstone of graduate education at the University of Colorado Boulder. Named for Beverly Sears—former Boulder City Council member and the inaugural development officer for 91´«Ã½â€™s Graduate School—the grant reflects her vision of supporting graduate students as essential contributors to the university’s research mission.

In the early 1980s, 91´«Ã½ leaders sought to transform the campus into a premier research institution. Beverly Sears championed the idea that graduate students needed financial support to fully participate in this transformation. Working closely with Bruce Ekstrand, the then-vice-chancellor for academic affairs, she helped establish what was originally called the Dean’s Grants Program, which was funded through private donations. This program, later renamed in her honor, has since provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in small grants to graduate students across disciplines, enabling projects that might otherwise have been impossible.

The impact of this funding has been profound. From research on wage inequality and human-elephant conflict to creating public art commemorating Los Seis de Boulder, recipients have gone on to become professors, artists, and innovators.