Transformative planned gift is largest in KU Social Welfare history

For David Ross and his wife Kelli Carroll, giving to the KU School of Social Welfare is "a message that we support you," Ross said.

Ross, who graduated from KU with a degree in social work in 1970, recently confirmed a planned gift that will be the largest in KU School of Social Welfare history. The gift, estimated to be over $1 million, is a percentage of Ross’s estate. It will primarily provide scholarships for future KU social work students.

Ross said he and Carroll want to help students who arrive at KU with limited resources or are the first in their families to go to college.

"We really embrace your decision to major in social work and become social workers," Ross said. "We want you to know that there’s someone out there who values that decision and hopefully helps you achieve that goal."

Social work education offered Ross exposure to a wider world

Ross grew up in a small town in the Texas panhandle – you could stand at one end of it and look out the other, he said.

Coming from a family of teachers and with limited resources for college, Ross knew he needed to get a degree in four years and find a job right after graduation.

When he got to the KU campus in the late 1960s, Ross was inspired by the social activism of the time. Majoring in social work was a way to pursue a practical degree and a "purposeful, 'what can I do' kind of degree," Ross said.

As a social work student, Ross spent a summer in Chicago working with children from the Cabrini-Green Homes public housing project. He also worked with people with mental illness at a state hospital in Topeka and participated in "urban plunges" that offered a chance to meet people working in human services in Kansas City and Chicago.

After graduation, Ross was a social worker in maximum security prisons in Kansas and North Carolina. He went on to earn a master's degree in journalism at Northwestern University and a law degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He spent most of his career as an attorney in Atlanta.

From his roots as "a kid from this little bitty town in Texas," Ross's experiences in the KU social work program and as a social worker opened different facets of the world, he said.

"It exposed me to the world. It really did," Ross said. "That's the gift of my social work degree and practice."

Meeting a need for more social workers

Ross and Carroll see the need for social workers in various aspects of their lives.

"The strains and stresses on our society are rife, and we need good social workers," Ross said.

Their planned gift will help remove financial barriers for future social work students, providing access to a growing profession and meeting an increasing need.

"This will be a transformative gift for our School," said Michelle Carney, dean of the KU School of Social Welfare. "Scholarships make a social work education accessible to more students, so they can graduate with less debt and start helping people right away."

Student scholarships are one of the School of Social Welfare's priorities in the Ever Onward campus fundraising campaign. Learn more about Ever Onward and make a gift to the KU School of Social Welfare.