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Nicoletti Challenge meets goals, will enhance UF Veterinary Access Scholarship fund

Dean Jim Lloyd stands with Hunter Schrank, president of the Class of 2015, center, and Dr. Paul Nicoletti, right, during the Senior Award Banquet on May 22. The Class of 2015 contributed $2015 to the Dean’s Scholarship Endowment fund as their class gift. (Staff photo)

When Dr. Paul Nicoletti, a professor emeritus at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and longtime supporter of student scholarships, announced in January that he would match, up to $100,000, gifts to the college’s new UF Veterinary Access Scholarship fund, he felt confident that supporters of the college and its lifeblood — the students — would come through.

He was not disappointed.

On May 29, Dean Jim Lloyd announced in a letter to college alumni that the “Nicoletti Challenge,” as the fundraising drive was known, had been met.

“I’m pleased to announce that the Dean’s Scholarship Endowment fund. which we have now re-named the UF Veterinary Access Scholarship, has received gifts totaling $104,727.65,” Lloyd said, thanking everyone who had contributed toward the effort. “We could not have done it without you. And a special thanks to Dr. Nicoletti for providing the $100,000 funds to kick off the effort and match our gifts. It is nice to know each one of our gifts will have double the impact.”

The college’s goal is to increase by 10-fold, the amount of annual scholarships that are presently being awarded.

“The students from the Class of 2015 who have just graduated are already on board with the effort,” Lloyd said. “Even facing their own student debt challenges, they directed their class gift of $2,015 to the Nicoletti Challenge.”

Lloyd said that meeting the Nicoletti Challenge was ” just the beginning” of the college’s long-term commitment to reverse the escalating student debt load trend for our veterinary medical students.

“This is not only important for the well-being of individual students, but to the profession as a whole,” he said. “Thanks to your generosity, we are ensuring the future of veterinary medicine.”