Rakiya Cunningham applied to UT Austin with her eyes set on making her mark in the business world. When she learned that she had been accepted, she was ecstatic. She knew that UT was the place she wanted to be.

Jacob Van Geffen started coding early. He loved the feeling of creating something from scratch. He knew that he wanted others to be able to experience that feeling as well. UT Austin helped him accomplish that goal.

Linda Yoo chose to be a nurse because she knows what it feels like to be sitting in a hospital. Yoo has a chronic autoimmune illness. Now she wants to follow in the footsteps of the great nurses who advocated for her.

For the first time, all student entrepreneurs have a source of real cash to build their ideas and the opportunity to serve as venture capital investors.

Terry Orr jokes that pursuing a degree in classical archaeology in his late 70s was all a ploy to avoid retirement. “You know, learning is a good thing,” he said. “Either learn or you die.”