The University of Oklahoma is being awarded the Davis Cup for the sixth consecutive year in recognition of its enrollment of United World College international freshmen. This year’s freshman class includes 56 Davis UWC Scholars. OU is the only public university in the nation to ever be awarded the Davis Cup and now also has the largest total enrollment of Davis United World College Scholars in the United States, including 217 UWC Scholars representing 85 countries.
“Congratulations to the University of Oklahoma for once again winning the Davis Cup!” wrote Shelby Davis and Phil Geier, co-founders of the Davis UWC Scholars Program. “We are proud of the university’s deep commitment to international understanding through education and are pleased that so many UWC graduates are pursuing their higher education in the heartland of the United States. May the friendships they make be lifelong and world-changing.”
The Davis Program is the largest scholarship program for undergraduate students in the world. Before receiving funding to attend Davis UWC Scholars Program partner colleges and universities in the United States such as OU, Yale, Princeton, among others, students are selected from around the globe to attend their multinational United World College. There they finish their last two years of secondary education, participating in the rigorous International Baccalaureate curriculum employed with all-English instruction.
A diverse international student population exists at each of the now 17 UWCs worldwide, including countries such as Hong Kong, India, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore and Swaziland to name a few. No more than 25 percent of the students at each school can be from the country where the school is located.
United World College was founded in 1962 with the vision of bringing together young people, whose experience was of the political conflict of the cold war era, offering an educational experience based on shared learning, collaboration and understanding so that the students would act as champions of peace. A UWC education instills in its students outstanding academic abilities and a proven capacity to build relationships with people from a variety of backgrounds.
Davis UWC Scholars have earned a reputation of not only being outstanding students but exceptional members of the university community as well. Since 2008, when OU enrolled its first UWC scholars, these students have achieved recognition as members of the President’s Leadership Class, President’s Community Scholars and as Outstanding Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. They have served in a variety of leadership roles, including as Ronnie K. Irani Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth team leaders, International Advisory Committee executive officers and resident advisers.
Established in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a doctoral degree-granting university and leader in research, healthcare, and academic activity impacting the state of Oklahoma and global community. The Norman campus enrolls more than 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students, the Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City enrolls more than 3,000 students and the OU-Tulsa campus enrolls more than 1,000. Of the 4,385 incoming freshmen in 2018, the average ACT score is 26.2 and is one of the most diverse and inclusive groups of incoming students in university history. OU began a new focus in 2018 to double research efforts in the next five years, promote OU Medicine as the healthcare provider of choice in the state of Oklahoma, and grow the university in northeastern Oklahoman.
