The University has renamed and added more students to its Bridge Year Program. According to a University statement released Wednesday, Jan. 9, after receiving a generous endowment from Michael Novogratz ’87 and Sukey Cáceres Novogratz ’89, the program will now accept 42 students each year instead of the previous 35.
It will now be known as the Novogratz Bridge Year Program.
Bridge Year is a tuition-free, international program which sends incoming students to one of five international locations. For nine months, the students engage in service programs with partner organizations in Bolivia, China, India, Indonesia, and Senegal.
The program began in 2009, with only twenty students.
In the statement, President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 thanked the Novogratzes for their contribution.
“Their extraordinary gift will enable generations of Princetonians to embark on a path of global citizenship as Bridge Year scholars,” he said.
Michael Novogratz is currently the CEO of Galaxy Digital. He is the former president of the Fortress Investment Group and a former partner at Goldman Sachs. He received his A.B. in economics from the University.
Sukey Novogratz is the vice chair of the Joyful Heart Foundation, which seeks to change societal perceptions of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. She graduated from the University with an A.B. in anthropology.
Three of the Novogratzes’ four children also attended the University.
“I believe that Bridge Year gives students an incredible opportunity to prepare for their role as leaders of an increasingly interconnected world,” Michael Novogratz said in the statement. “At the same time, it offers abundant opportunities for introspection and personal growth.”
Sukey Novogratz also commented on the positive influence that the Bridge Year Program had on scholars.
“The positive impact the program has had on their lives — and on the lives of the people in the communities they have served — is extraordinary,” she said in the statement. “We’re very happy to help make that possible.”
Nina Onyemeziem ’22 participated in the program in Bolivia before her first year and said the expansion will be beneficial for the University.
“The expansion is great because Bridge Year offers an insightful experience that, personally, I think many students on this campus need,” she wrote in an email to the The Daily Princetonian. “There is no student [who] is exempt from checking their privilege and working to lessen their ignorance regarding many issues; so, the more people there are doing Bridge Year, the better.”
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