John David Merrill

DAVIDSON, N.C. – Sophomore John David Merrill came to Davidson College from a public high-school in a high-poverty, inner-city neighborhood in Baltimore. One of the few white kids in his predominantly African-American school, Merrill was not on pace to go to a top-tier college until inspired by a few key high-school teachers, he says.

But with scholarships from the city of Baltimore, financial help from his grandparents and a newfound confidence in his own abilities, he entered Davidson and now is president of his sophomore class.

“Davidson had trust in my ability to perform on this level academically,” he says, “even when I didn’t trust my own abilities.”

To give that same opportunity to other students, he recently organized the second-annual Dinner at Davidson, which raised $21,512 to provide a scholarship of $5,000 a year for four years to an incoming freshman.

That goal of making college more accessible is shared by Davidson, which in 2007 established The Davidson Trust, becoming the first liberal-arts college in the U.S. to replace loans with grants, thereby allowing students to graduate debt-free.

To date the trust, which will administer the new Student Government Association Davidson Trust Scholarship, has raised more than $57 million, and in the 2009-10 academic year provided support to 41 percent of the college’s 1,742 students...

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