Make a Gift to CEE

The opportunity to engage in research during the undergraduate years is a top priority for today's students and greatly enhances their education. Students who have these opportunities gain a valuable introduction to the research process and are more likely to stay for graduate studies. Often, the experience also increases their desirability in the job market. The department’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program provides funding for professors to hire undergrads for research positions.

Engineering Visionary Scholarships (EVS) provide large, renewable and, notably, unrestricted scholarships to incoming freshman and transfer students. Gifts to the EVS fund are pooled together, maximizing our ability to target deserving recipients with sizable awards. Even the smallest gift can have an impact on a student’s life when it is combined with other gifts. These scholarships allow CEE at Illinois to continue attracting the brightest students, ensure a diverse and talented class, and help reduce the burden of debt.

The CEEAA (Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association) Undergraduate Service Leadership Scholarship was established in 2013 by the CEEAA Board of Directors in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the CEE Alumni Association and to honor past and present members of the CEEAA Board of Directors. The scholarship is awarded annually to two or more students who have completed at least 30 hours but not more than 90 credit hours on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

Gifts to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Priority Fund are always needed. Your gift to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Priority Fund (formerly known as Civil and Environmental Engineering Trust Endowment Fund) provides vital, unrestricted support that allows the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to strategically invest in critical initiatives that will transform the student experience, drive world-changing research, and address social justice in engineering education and research.

Your contributions to the CEE Priority Fund help the department fund various initiatives including:

• Providing scholarship funds for students
• Supporting undergraduate, hands-on research programs
• Funding student activities and field trips
• Recruiting the country's top graduate students
• Supporting faculty research
• Hosting special lectures and visiting scholars

In order to keep up with a growing student body and modern instructional methods needed to meet the demands of the field, CEE at Illinois is in the process of upgrading and expanding the nearly 50-year old facilities that make up our complex. The effort began with the construction of the Yeh Student Center, and continued with the recently completed Kavita and Lalit Bahl Smart Bridge and CEE Building, which includes state-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories to facilitate hands-on instruction and cross-disciplinary learning. Gifts to the modernization fund will help us fully equip the new laboratories and reduce the debt incurred by the department to complete the new CEE Building.

The CEE YED Scholarship was established by the CEE Alumni Association Young Engineers Division (YED) to provide a way for young alumni who are early in their careers to philanthropically support current students. The YED Scholarship Committee notes that even small gifts to the fund will add up to make a big difference in the lives of students. Still in the accrual stage, when the fund is large enough the YED Board of Directors will begin awarding annual scholarships to deserving CEE students. 

Gifts of all sizes from all donors are welcome.