People
March 22, 2010
Trustee funds financial aid for Oxford College
John Rice
GE executive John G. Rice and his wife, Cammie, have made a significant gift to support the Emory Advantage financial aid program at Oxford College. The gift, and the establishment of the Nancy and Charles Rice Scholarship Fund, recognizes his parents’ commitment to education and is in honor of his father, who passed away in 2009.
“I believe in the Oxford model. I’ve seen it do great things for my niece, who is now a junior on the main campus,” he says. “The way young people can develop on the Oxford campus is special. They progress and go on to become leaders at Emory. I think it’s a great model that needs to be supported.”
Dean of Oxford College Steve Bowen says, “This gift is especially meaningful because it comes from benefactors who have a thorough understanding of higher education and have chosen Oxford College to receive their support. We are extremely grateful for both their generosity and their confidence in the power of Oxford’s transformative educational program.”
A member of the Emory Board of Trustees, Rice is vice chairman of GE and president and CEO of GE Technology Infrastructure. Along with Emory Chancellor Michael M.E. Johns, he co-chairs the University’s fundraising effort for Emory Advantage.
Emory Advantage is the University’s financial aid initiative to help students from families with annual total incomes of $100,000 or less who demonstrate a need for aid. The program reduces the amount of money borrowed to pay for an undergraduate Emory degree. The goal is to make an Emory education attainable for any qualified student, regardless of income.
The program is open to undergraduate students at Oxford College, Emory College of Arts and Sciences, and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. The Nancy and Charles Rice Scholarship Fund will support the Emory Advantage program at Oxford.
“For Emory University to continue to attract the best and brightest, with the increasing cost of a college education, we’re going to have to find more ways to support students who don’t have the private financial means to attend,” Rice says. “This is why I think financial aid is important and why Cammie and I have directed our gift to Emory Advantage.”
A native of New Jersey, Rice became involved with Emory after moving to Atlanta in 2000. He met Johns—who was executive vice president for health affairs at the time—through the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Soon Rice was serving on the board of Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center.
Rice has been active in supporting and improving education in Georgia for nearly a decade. In addition to his role as an Emory trustee and Emory Advantage fund-raising co-chair, he advises Goizueta Business School as a Dean’s Executive Fellow and teaches Emory business students as a guest speaker. He has been chair of education for the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and co-chair of the Commission for School Board Excellence.
The Rices named the Emory Advantage fund after his late father, a lawyer, and his mother, a retired teacher, because they championed education in the family.
“My parents always put a premium on education. It was expected that we would get an education and that their grandkids would. And they have made whatever resources necessary available for this,” Rice says.
The Rices’ gift is part of Campaign Emory, a $1.6 billion fundraising endeavor that combines private support and the University’s people, places and programs to make a powerful contribution to the world.
