Molly Mancuso, Class of ’22, is a recipient of the Colt Foundation Scholarship.

Intended for first- and second-year veterinary students, early scholarships are meant to help shoulder student debt load from the first day of class. Alumni and donors who support these scholarships are turning what may seem like only a dream into a financially sound reality for academically prepared students with limited family incomes or other disadvantages.

Early scholarships are an asset to the college as much as a benefit to deserving students who apply for them, for these reasons:

• They ease the financial burden of professional school.
• They increase the diversity of competitive students who come from all walks of life, including first-generation college students.
• They help the college to be more competitive in attracting top students who are comparing tuition, costs and scholarship opportunities in making their school choices.

Tuition alone is just under $29,000 for in-state students, and $45,500 for out-of-state students each year at UF. Additionally, students have living expenses and other academic costs, including travel and registration to attend conferences. To help with some of those expenses, the college offers many scholarships under $2,000, made available through generous supporters.

Colt Foundation Scholarship

The Colt Foundation Scholarship, established by Karen Heard, D.V.M. (’81), provides $20,000 annually for four years to one student. With the goal of easing the cost of veterinary education, she hopes the scholarship will enhance the educational experience by enriching the diversity of students so the veterinary medical profession is better able to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse society.

An alumnus of the college’s second graduating class, Heard came to UF after earning her bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. Her daughter, Jenny Heard, D.V.M. (’18) also graduated from UF and now practices in New Zealand.

“I was fortunate to grow up with an expectation that my parents would pay for my education,” said Heard. “In turn, I paid for my daughter’s education. It wasn’t easy; sacrifices were made.”

Heard’s parents both came from horse families and met at a racetrack. On her father side were horse trainers and on her mother’s side, racehorse owners. The James J. Colt Foundation, a philanthropic organization in medicine and education, was founded by Heard’s mother in honor of her own father, James Colt. Although he immigrated to New York before World War II and had little education, he worked hard and became successful in business and land holdings in New Jersey and New York, Heard said of her maternal grandfather.

A veterinarian in the Los Angeles area for 38 years, Heard has long advocated for veterinary technicians who struggled to further their education.

“I worked with many technicians who would have made excellent veterinarians but could not because of the financial burden,” Heard said

Molly Mancuso, (’22) is in her second year at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, thanks to the generous support she receives from the Colt Foundation Scholarship.

She had studied hard and worked with veterinarians in zoo/wildlife medicine who prepared her for the reality of the cost of a veterinary education, but she was determined to find a way.

“I knew this was what I wanted, and I was prepared to eat Ramen noodles if I had to — whatever it took,” Mancuso said. “Then I got a call from UF offering me admission with scholarship funding every year. I wasn’t sure I even heard it right. I had to ask them to repeat it!”

A triplet, raised by a single mom, Mancuso and her siblings all faced financial challenges as the three entered college at the same time. Each continued on, working toward professional degrees. Their mom, a dental assistant, had put aside her dreams of becoming a dentist due to parental responsibilities, but always encouraged her children to reach theirs.

There are only 30 colleges of veterinary medicine nationally, which receive vastly more student applications than there are available openings.

“The costs of veterinary school are intimidating, and they start before you are even accepted,” said Mancuso. “There are application and transcript fees for each application, and if you are fortunate to get an interview, you have airfare and travel costs.”

Mancuso is from New Jersey, which doesn’t have a veterinary school. She applied to six schools, knowing she would have no choice but to pay higher out-of-state tuition. She received three acceptance offers, but the call from UF admissions made her choice easy.

With the broad ranges of studies available at UF, Mancuso found a strong interest in pathology, and added large animal clinical rotations to her schedule. She also has set her sights on working toward an Aquatic Animal Health Certificate.

AIM High Scholarship

The AIM High scholarship, established through a gift from an anonymous donor, supports a different student each year with a $25,000 award. The scholarship seeks applicants who demonstrate a commitment to communicating across social lines of gender, race/ethnicity, generation, geography, and class; an ability to overcome educational, social, or family disadvantages; academic merit and leadership potential.

Allison Hinchcliff, Class of ’23, with her mother and her dog, Kona. Allison is a recipient of the Aim High Scholarship.

Awarded last fall to Allison Hinchcliff (’23), from Fort Pierce, Fla., the scholarship means nearly a year’s head start before she will have to take on student loans.

“Getting accepted to veterinary school, and then on top of that, getting this amazing scholarship — I’m still pinching myself, waiting to wake up to see if it’s real,” Hinchcliff said.

Entering high school, Hinchcliff found a school outside her school zone that offered a unique veterinary assistant program. She didn’t think twice about applying even though it meant getting up at 4:30 a.m. to take two school buses with transfers, to- and- from school every day for her four years of high school.

A first-generation scholar who was raised in a low-income household by a mother who is deaf, Hinchcliff, the eldest of seven children, understands challenges first-hand. As a future practitioner, she hopes to make veterinary services more accessible to low-income and disabled people.

It was up to Hinchcliff to put herself through college in Fort Pierce and Tallahassee, continuing to help her mom with finances and other difficult tasks of making doctor’s appointments and veterinary appointments for the family. Following her studies, she worked in a veterinary hospital in Sebastian, Fla.  While working in Sebastian she adopted a dog from a local no-kill animal shelter that aids the Humane Society in the Bahamas, taking its overload of stray dogs and cats. Her dog, Kona came from a litter that had arrived only months before Hurricane Dorian devastated the island.

Now, finding her dream at UF with Kona by her side, Hinchcliff is working toward UF’s Shelter Medicine Certificate in her studies along with her DVM curriculum. In continuing her work with rescue animals, she looks to future dreams of owning a dog rescue as well as her own veterinary practice one day that can be inclusive to those with low income and special needs — and to the day she might be able to give another deserving student a leg up.