Chellgren Center Celebrates 10 Years of Service to Students, University

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 1, 2016) -- University of Kentucky students, alumni, faculty, administrators and friends gathered recently to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the UK Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence.

Special guests at the celebration included Mr. and Mrs. Paul W. Chellgren, the benefactors who not only created the center but also its legacy of hope and confidence for 335 students, including 54 students currently enrolled in the sophomore program.

At the anniversary celebration, UK President Eli Capilouto thanked the Chellgren family “for believing in the University of Kentucky and believing in the generations to come.”

“We are a university that is not about the buildings; it’s about the people,” he said. “It’s my honor…to thank the Chellgrens for believing in us. They came with a dream, and then many other people…turned that into a reality. They had confidence in us, and now they will birth – for generations to come – people who, I think, will live in their image.

“I don’t care what the issue is, (the Chellgrens) will bring their full humanity to it,” added Capilouto. “They bring their ideas, their financial support, their advocacy, and their humanity. More than ever, we need more Chellgrens, and (our students) are the ones who will inherit this precious legacy.”

Chellgren also reminisced, adding his own personal memories of the center’s creation and his pride in graduates and aspirations for current and future students.

“UK needed something really special to focus on excellence in undergraduate education. I was receptive to creating … a statement, a signature program,” Chellgren said, adding that he recognized “… the benefits that could be achieved by focusing on a program (to) identify the truly excellent undergraduate students.

Chellgren said that as an undergraduate, he “always felt that a horizontally focused program with the best students would have … enormous advantages. I had seen … center models where a faculty-oriented, student-oriented mentorship program could pay enormous dividends and benefit those truly excellent students.” 

Chellgren is a UK Honors Program alumnus. As a student he was a star intercollegiate debater and president of the student body his senior year. He subsequently earned a Harvard MBA and a DDE from Oxford University, where he has been named an Honorary Fellow. In addition to a celebrated career in business, one that included service as the CEO of Ashland Inc., Chellgren has been a very active UK alumnus, serving 11 years on the UK Board of Trustees. 

Chellgren surely sees reflections of himself among the current Chellgren students, “a group of extraordinary men and women who are at the very earliest stages of their careers,” he said. “They are doing exactly what you’d hope they’d be doing – experimenting, trying things out. We’re focusing on giving horizontal opportunities both in the personal and professional sense to these selected and very special young men and young women.”

Philipp Kraemer, Chellgren Endowed Chair for Undergraduate Excellence and advocate for the program, also contemplated the early days, before there was a Chellgren Center.

 “What Mr. Chellgren recognized was that the very best research universities are excellent at everything, including undergraduate education, and that was something that wasn’t getting the attention it deserved. So, he came to us with…a very generous a multi-million-dollar gift to the university that we were able to match with the Research Challenge Trust Fund model,” said Kraemer.

The Research Challenge Trust Fund was created by the Kentucky Legislature in 1997 with legislation that allowed philanthropic gifts to eight Kentucky universities to be matched with state funds. It was designed to advance the economic success of Kentucky and its citizens through education and research.

Chellgren’s gift, matched by state funds, provided the predominate funding for most of the programming and student support at the Chellgren Center.

“More importantly,” said Kraemer, “Mr. Chellgren provided us with the vision of what we should be thinking about in order to begin to foster academic excellence among our undergraduates.”

The donor’s vision has been excelled by reality. The Chellgren Center today takes a leadership role in advocating for undergraduate excellence, educational innovation and community service. Its faculty contribute greatly to the goal of excellence at UK by raising students’ aspirations. They are joined by staff who assist students in realizing their highest academic potential; inspiring progressive reform and innovation in teaching, learning and curriculum development; and fostering creative and productive collaborations across the many programs and departments engaged in the undergraduate mission.

UK student Andrew Cech, who was a Chellgren Fellow during his sophomore year, shared with the anniversary audience his experiences at the center and encouraged other students to seek the support he found at the Chellgren Center.

“Because I had the support group here (at the Chellgren Center),” said Cech, “I was able to finish (my undergraduate research) and end up with an internship at a think tank that following summer. That would not have come about if not for my undergraduate time here at the Chellgren Center.”

Speaking directly to the current Chellgren students in the audience, Cech said, “The Chellgren Center has put into place all the institutions needed to help develop undergraduate students for the future, whether that be research, study abroad, whatever your interest is, this institution is there to help you out. I can’t express enough gratitude for that.”

UK is the University for Kentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK story and how you can support continued investment in your university and the Commonwealth, go to: uky.edu/uk4ky. #uk4ky #seeblue

MEDIA CONTACT: Gail Hairston, 859-257-3302, gail.hairston@uky.edu