CINCINNATI — Saint Ursula Academy in East Walnut Hills will receive $1 million over the next 10 years to support its entrepreneurship program, in a gift from the Ed and Joann Hubert Family Foundation, WKRC reported on Wednesday, November 4.
According to WKRC, the funding is expected to help the academy add more programming and create additional opportunities for its students, with the stated aim of preparing the next generation of women in business. The gift spreads the support across a full decade rather than arriving as a single one-time grant.
The school also plans to hire a dedicated program director early next year, WKRC reported. The new director’s role will focus on growing the entrepreneurship program, giving the effort a staff leader of its own as the added programming takes shape.
The program the gift will support is still young. In its own July 2024 announcement, Saint Ursula Academy said it had partnered with the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business to offer a new Essentials in Entrepreneurship course, taught on the Saint Ursula campus by Dr. Charles Matthews, a UC distinguished teaching professor of entrepreneurship and strategy, with students able to earn College Credit Plus credits.
The academy said more than 80 students signed up for that first course, which is offered to juniors and seniors. According to the school, program participants — including students who do not take the course itself — can also engage with UC’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Lindner activities that include business pitch competitions, venture capital programming and events focused on women in business and women in entrepreneurship.
“This allows us to provide an exciting new option for our students while maintaining the standard of excellence SUA is known to offer,” Saint Ursula Academy Principal Kathy Restle said in the school’s announcement of the UC partnership. The school said its portion of that earlier program was made possible by a funding gift from Cincinnati-based RDI Corporation, meaning the new Hubert Family Foundation gift builds on support the entrepreneurship effort has drawn before.
What happens next is the hiring search: Saint Ursula expects to bring its dedicated entrepreneurship program director on board early next year, and the added programming WKRC described will roll out under that leadership as the 10-year gift begins flowing to the East Walnut Hills school.