As a result of Freeing Minds and St. John’s work to cut costs, the college achieved a balanced budget in 2021—the year we committed to doing so.

With our structural deficit behind us, the college is investing your gifts back into our Program and intensifying our efforts to keep it affordable.

Great Books endure because they were passed down to future generations by readers who were moved by the ideas within.

The St. John’s Endowment, which consists of generous gifts that are invested for long-term growth, ensures the Program endures in much the same way.

By providing a permanent stream of annual income, the endowment helps to preserve our more affordable price structure, so that students will always have the chance to pick apart Aristotle, examine Plato, and dissect Harvey.

The annual income from our endowment covers nearly 20 percent of the cost to deliver the Program, removing a heavy burden from the shoulders of students.

At our peer colleges, only 13 percent of needs are met through investments. The national average is even lower at 12 percent.

In the coming years, St. John’s expects to receive $90 million in deferred gifts, primarily from donors who have included Freeing Minds in their estate plans. Once these gifts are received, annual income from the St. John’s Endowment will, under current market conditions, cover more than a third of the cost to educate our students.

In 2018, St. John’s boldly lowered tuition by one-third, reversing a decade of price increases and instantly making the college a more affordable option for Kabita.

Five years later, that tuition price has risen less than the rate of inflation and continues to hover near a 15-year low.

Our students want campuses that reflect their environmental goals, and the campaign has given St. John’s the means to respond.

In Santa Fe, the transition to energy-efficient LED lighting is complete, and new ground and carport-mounted solar panel arrays should be installed and operational by spring 2023.

Funded through an anonymous campaign gift, these projects will absorb the entire energy burden on the Santa Fe campus and move St. John’s closer to a carbon-neutral future.

At St. John’s, conversations that begin around the seminar table frequently continue over cups of coffee with classmates and a nearby chalkboard.

Annapolis is in the final stages of a renovation that will transform the student experience and restore Mellon Hall as the epicenter of social life on the Annapolis campus.

Funded by campaign gifts and a matching grant from the state of Maryland, the project will give students an outdoor terrace, performing arts space, and cozy lounge areas that feel like home.

Interest in St. John’s has accelerated in recent years, as more students discover that the Program is both transformative and attainable.

They are able to hear this message—and the college is able to remain within reach—because your support allows St. John’s to target our recruitment efforts, creatively connect with students, and keep our tuition costs low.

As a result, the Class of 2025 is the largest in more than a decade, with applications surging to the highest level in St. John’s history.

Through the Pritzker Promise Bridge Program, St. John’s is doing more to equip students for success at the college, with a special focus on supporting students who possess fewer resources than their peers.

The week-long schedule of events is held prior to the traditional freshman orientation, giving new students almost two weeks to adjust to their new community—and one another—before they experience their first seminar. Activities include writing workshops; panel discussions with staff, tutors, and alumni; and quality time with peer mentors.

Of the students who participated in the Summer 2022 Bridge Program, more than 90 percent say it helped them make friends, build a social network, and feel more comfortable expressing themselves.

Not only did Diana successfully navigate her first year at St. John’s; she also capped it off with a summer fellowship to study art in Aix-en-Provence, France. The step would be a big one for any student, but especially for a first-year, first-generation student.

The Pritzker Promise Bridge Program and the Pathways Fellowship program—both supported by philanthropy—are among the student success initiatives that earned St. John’s national recognition as a First-gen Forward college.

St. John’s is the first institution in New Mexico to receive this designation, which acknowledges our commitment to supporting students who are the first in their families to attend college.

The first year of college is a time of self-discovery—but also challenges, particularly for students who possess limited sources of outside support. This is especially true for international and first-generation students, as well as students from less-wealthy backgrounds.

Through peer mentorships, a component of the Pritzker Promise Bridge Program, these new Johnnies benefit from the guidance, experience, and friendship of a classmate who has walked in their shoes. Funded through a Freeing Minds gift, the initiative is part of a collegewide effort to prepare new students for success.

Across both campuses, 26 peer mentors are helping new students navigate their freshman year—and enjoy all the college has to offer.

More than 40 percent of Freeing Minds gifts directly benefit the St. John’s academic Program, ensuring that students and tutors will always have an opportunity to take this journey together.

When the pandemic arrived, your gifts gave St. John’s the means to quickly accelerate our freshman advising program, enabling more students to bond with tutors during a time of challenges for both.

Over the years, alumni have shared their concerns about academic support. The college has listened, acted, and continues to act: As a result, all freshmen are now paired with a faculty member.

Students from the American Southwest are discovering that the best liberal arts education is right in their own backyard, and it can be affordable.

High schools that partner with St. John’s through the Southwest Scholars Partners Program gain access to exclusive benefits, including scholarships to study in Santa Fe. The college, in turn, enjoys a deeper relationship with school personnel, who serve as ambassadors for the Program and point promising students toward the college.

We currently have 23 partner schools, due in large part to gifts received through the Freeing Minds campaign.

St. John’s can attract a globally diverse community of seekers and searchers because your gifts enable us to establish fruitful partnerships with high schools around the world, keep our tuition costs low, and still provide aid to students who need support.

One of our most reliable pipelines for bringing international voices to St. John’s is the global network of United World College high schools.

As a result of an anonymous gift, UWC students like Parth are eligible for a full-tuition scholarship to study at either campus.

St. John’s 36 resident advisors are on the front lines of student support, keeping fellow Johnnies safe and healthy.

Since the launch of the campaign, the college has been able to greatly expand and improve the training provided to resident advisors.

Over the course of a week, RAs learn how to intervene in crisis situations, identify students who are struggling to adjust, and establish open and nonjudgmental dialogue. An important new addition is anti-harassment training, which empowers RAs to combat on-campus bias and foster an environment where every Johnnie can feel at home.

St. John’s is listening to students when they tell us what the college can do to bring the Program within reach.

Older adults say they need options, so the Graduate Institute is offering the choice of either fully in-person classes or a low-residency experience that still allows for time in physical community.

This pilot effort will continue for at least three years and help to mitigate one of the biggest hurdles that graduate students face: the demands of full-time residency.

St. John’s Summer Academy gives high school students a taste of the Program, with its power and passion, music and mystery.

It also gives the Program new Johnnies, who return to the college with a thirst for what it offers and an understanding of what it requires.

Among the Class of 2026, one in six students participated in a St. John’s summer experience during high school.

St. John’s is delivering on our mission to provide an equitable environment, where students of all backgrounds are respected and heard.

Of our newest Johnnies, 23 percent represent families in the lower income brackets, and more than a quarter identify as Black, Indigenous, or students of color.

We are able to attract diverse voices, which give so much texture to conversations around the seminar table, because your gifts open doors and provide support.

St. John’s is indeed a special place, one built on a foundation of mutual growth and discovery.

Across both campuses, more than 70 academic assistants provide peer-to-peer support, offering individual and group study sessions for classmates who need help with Greek, math, and other subjects. Your gifts, in turn, help student assistants, who often depend on work-study funds to help them pay for St. John’s.

More assistants, greater oversight, and improved training are adding up to a higher level of support for every student.

Some say it bears a striking resemblance to soccer. Others say it’s closer to netball. Still others compare it to Ultimate Frisbee. And some just call it madness.

Annapolis students named it Stringfellow Ball, and it’s a socially distanced athletic concoction that could only exist at St. John’s College.

It’s also an example of the steps both campuses have taken, with the aid of your gifts, to help students build community and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

Too many alumni say they felt thrown into the Program, with only a brief introduction to Johnnie life.

Your gifts are changing things for students. Incoming freshmen now enjoy a more thorough welcome, with activities designed to help them find their footing in their new home.

Over the course of a full week, students engage in practice seminars, learn about supportive resources on campus, discuss issues around diversity, and receive advice from their peers on how to manage their time—and stress.

Figuring things out alone isn’t one of the lessons.

During a typical day, every student will see, touch, study in, walk upon, and benefit from important campus improvements that your gifts have already made possible.

In Santa Fe, several buildings needed roof repairs: you made it happen. Students needed a place to relax with a book, a game, and one another: Winnie’s Lounge gives them that space.

The next step is a revitalized student center in Santa Fe and a comprehensive overhaul of our Annapolis residence halls.

These aren’t lavish updates that exact a heavy financial toll on students. Instead, they are modest improvements that use your gifts wisely to create campuses reminiscent of home.

It is your generosity that gives St. John’s the means to maintain our lower, more defensible price structure and still allocate resources to students who need additional help with tuition.

The scholarships you provide, either through new scholarships you have created or gifts you have made to the St. John’s Annual Fund, ensure that when students like Luke encounter financial hardships, it doesn’t upend their education or their dreams.

Alumni and friends currently provide need-based support in the form of scholarships and other aid to more than two-thirds of all St. John’s students.

The caring support you show our students also extends to their postgraduate goals.

Through the Jobs 4 Johnnies initiative, alumni and board members partner with our newest graduates to help them identify fields of career interest, polish their resumes and portfolios, and prepare for interviews.

The initiative, now entering its fourth year, is part of a more robust suite of career service programming that is being implemented on both campuses as a result of your gifts.

Summer internships give students a taste of real-world work experience, while fellowships let them dive deep into areas of postgraduate study. Both opportunities prompt students to think seriously about life after St. John’s and how to prepare.

Every year our students rely on your generosity to help them afford these experiences, which can open doors to a potential career or reveal new areas of academic interest.

In recent years, your support has enabled students to work and study at the London School of Economics, Georgetown University, NASA, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and other influential institutions.

In September 2018, alumni Warren (Class of 1952) and Barbara Winiarski (Class of 1955) issued a challenge, calling upon the St. John’s community to raise $50 million and pledging to match those gifts with a contribution from the Winiarski Family Foundation.

You came through for the college and met the challenge, securing a total of $100 million toward Freeing Minds. Those gifts have already helped the college make remarkable progress toward priorities that benefit every student and tutor.

This collective achievement involved nearly 5,000 donors and more than 17,000 gifts—of which two-thirds came from alumni.

St. John’s academic Program takes students into a new and different world—a world that is filled with adventures and discovery, a world that isn’t always comfortable and is never commonplace.

Our Outdoor Program in Santa Fe does the same. Through a variety of trips, students can ski, hike, climb, canoe, and camp their way from the bottom of piñon-lined canyons to the top of nearby Mount Atalaya.

Philanthropic support means the college can offer the majority of these experiences free of charge to students or at a greatly reduced cost, ensuring that enchanting adventures in “the Land of Enchantment” aren’t accessible to only a few.

Through important texts, penetrating conversations, and hands-on lab work, St. John’s encourages students to wrestle with humankind’s understanding of the universe.

For students who are especially interested in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, donor-funded summer internships and fellowships provide a pathway for further exploration.

Fellowships enable students to augment their St. John’s education with specialized coursework at some of the world’s most influential research universities. Internships offer a firsthand experience of day-to-day work in applied science.

Of the internships and fellowships undertaken in Summer 2022, one-third were related to STEM.

Contemplating a career change? Hiring a private career coach can be expensive.

St. John’s offers personalized, professional-grade career coaching that is free of charge to not only undergraduate students and recent graduates but also to graduate students and alumni who are navigating career transitions later in life. The college can help with self-assessments, networking, interview prep, and strategies for negotiating an offer—without the high cost of a private coach.

St. John’s is able to meet this need through an expanded array of programming made possible by Freeing Minds and by regular, sustained giving to the Fund for St. John’s.

Taking summer classes outside of St. John’s gives students an opportunity to explore areas of graduate study, fulfill pre-requisite courses, or achieve certification in a field of career interest. These experiences are funded entirely through philanthropy, making them more accessible to students who might otherwise pursue seasonal employment that does not address their long-term goals.

As word continues to spread about the support St. John’s provides, demand for summer opportunities has grown, with applications for internships and fellowships rising 60 percent in 2022.