About the UVA Brand

The University of Virginia was founded in 1819 as the model for modern universities, and has been emulated all over the world. While the University’s history mirrors the growth and struggles of a nation – both bold experiments that challenge us to realize the best version of ourselves – its story is its own, reflected in the innovative and humanistic ways UVA serves its communities, the country and the world.

Excellence here goes everywhere. We live on Grounds but reside in the hopes of people we’ve never met. We are of a place and time, but the promise of what happens here transcends both. After 200 years, this iconic institution of higher learning remains vital because it is fully immersed in meeting the greatest challenges of our time.

At the University of Virginia, serving the public is our heritage and culture. It’s our original, animating purpose. We’re here to educate citizen leaders while promoting access so a meritocracy of talent can participate in shaping our society. We’re here to study democracy, but to also provide the discourse and tools that encourage participation and ensure democracy endures. We’re here to pursue transformational ideas in education and research that respond to the unending needs of society and improve the quality of life. We’re here to serve our community through volunteerism and civic engagement.

Our impact can be measured in scientific breakthroughs, new medical treatments, opportunities created, barriers broken down and innovations that redefine what’s possible. Then there are the hard-to-measure things. Empathy. Compassion. Decency. Understanding. Without these, we would never realize the best version of ourselves.

As an institution, our strength comes from being steadfast in our beliefs while being open-minded to the change that keeps us relevant and makes us better. This balance is essential to finding new inroads without losing who we are along the way. The University is literally a work in progress in our third century of service to Virginia, the nation and the world.

Brand essence is the fundamental nature or quality without which you would not be who you are. It is constant, timeless. It acts like a nucleus, defined as “the central and most important part of an object, movement, or group, forming the basis for its activity and growth.” Therefore, an effective brand essence is not just an identity but a source of energy for the actions that define us.

The University of Virginia’s brand essence is living idealism.

Living is rooted in the practical. It’s the work and play, the learning and growing. It’s the daily life experiences and the relationships we form, on Grounds and off. It’s being fully engaged with each other and the world, doing so with enthusiasm, clarity, courage and empathy. Idealism conveys the aspirational. Present at our founding, it gives us a profound belief in the future and our ability to shape it. The relentless pursuit of high ideals and ideas, to the best of our abilities and with noble intention, is the only way we can move forward. Living idealism is both aspirational and pragmatic, creating an essential, dynamic and creative tension between our living reality and what could be.

This ethos provides endless energy for a vibrant community of people determined to make things better. It inspires transformational ideas and experiences. It reflects our culture of volunteerism and civic leadership. It aligns our pursuit of knowledge with our original purpose: to serve the common good. Connecting action to idealism is a practical way to achieve the world we aspire to live in. Living idealism is our potential, in practice.

UVA remains a vibrant and relevant institution as long as it defies easy categorization. Our Academical Village is a constellation of people and ideas that inspires a creative tension and energy as we pursue our individual passions while sharing the desire to be a force of positive change in the world. “And” is among the most powerful words in the English language. We aren’t limited to this or that; we are this and that and more. Only by inviting a rich, diverse array of possibilities can we strive to be as limitless as the human mind. We’re an uncommon community of many that identifies as a unified one: Hoos.

Reasons to believe:

• We are citizen leaders who serve others.
• We are accessible and we are exceptional.
• We are uniquely American and belong to the world through UVA Global’s international partnerships, UVA’s study abroad programs and advancements made by current and former Hoos that have changed how people live, wherever they live.
• We are academics and focused on solving real-world problems.
• Our student athletes perform to the highest standards in both athletic and academic pursuits.
• Our admissions are highly selective and promote access for the most promising students from all walks of life.
• We are steadfast in our beliefs and traditions while being open-minded to progress and change.
• We are conservative and liberal (and everything in-between).
• We are firmly rooted in the history of this nation while actively shaping its future.

Our paradoxical nature embraces contradictions. As our view of the world and each other becomes more nuanced and more truthful, it unlocks deeper wisdom, better decision-making and profound personal growth.

The University of Virginia is a proudly public institution. Serving the public is in our DNA. It’s our original, animating purpose.

Reasons to believe:

• We're promoting achievement by all who attend UVA by offering one of the top financial aid programs in the nation among public colleges and by meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need. Higher education is only an opportunity if students and their families can afford it.
• Caring for our own community enables us to bring our best to the world. UVA was ranked  #1 in the nation by The Princeton Review for Best Health Services, based on student ratings of the health services on Grounds.
• We’re dedicated to serving the communities in which we live and work.
• Thousands of UVA students volunteer each year through Madison House, providing services estimated to be worth $1.6 million at over 90 sites in the Charlottesville/Albemarle area.
• UVA’s Pipelines & Pathways program offers jobs and paid training opportunities. In its first three years of existence, it has surpassed its three-year goal of 500 new hires, with 80% of the positions filled being full-time, benefited jobs.
• UVA’s Starr Hill Pathways program, in partnership with community organizations and Piedmont Virginia Community College, serves local youth by tutoring, mentoring and expanding their belief in their own potential.
• UVA Health brings world-class care to nearly 1.5 million patients each year. Mobile health units expand access to medical care across the state. Annual volunteer-run clinics offer free dental, vision and medical treatments for uninsured patients. UVA Health is here to serve all Virginians.
• UVA is an economic engine for the commonwealth, contributing nearly $12 billion in economic impact annually. It’s also the largest employer in the region, accounting directly or indirectly for more than 67,000 jobs.
• For every dollar invested by Virginia into the University of Virginia, the commonwealth realizes an economic benefit of $35 – a 3,400% ROI.

Over 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson said he wanted students at this University to reach for “destinies of high promise.” Today, the University of Virginia is one of the top public universities in the nation because we remain committed to inspiring excellence in thought and action from those who come here.

Reasons to believe:

• We’ve established and are running 12 schools, representing thought leaders, research preeminence and academic achievement in their respective fields.
• We’re celebrating well-rounded students who exhibit academic excellence, moral character and leadership qualities, producing among the most Fulbright and Rhodes Scholars. We’re providing value for our students, ranked #2 Best Value among public universities in the nation by The Princeton Review and the Best Value in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report.
• We’re offering advanced patient care through UVA Health’s University Medical Center, ranked the #1 hospital in Virginia by Newsweek. UVA Health Children’s is ranked the #1 children’s hospital in Virginia by U.S. News & World Report. UVA Health is one of 58 national comprehensive cancer centers, recognized for leadership and a depth of applied research and resources to help patients with advanced treatments.
• We’re championing researchers who are bringing life-changing innovations to those in need, such as an artificial pancreas for Type 1 diabetics. UVA developed the use of focused ultrasound for incision-free brain surgery to treat essential tremor, providing patients immediate relief from symptoms. This revolutionary medical technology is being tested as a new non-invasive treatment of chronic diseases of all types. The best is yet to come.
• The UVA Cancer Center became the first health care provider in Virginia to offer a newly FDA-approved immunotherapy to treat small cell lung cancer.
• More recently, UVA Health Children’s became the first hospital anywhere to have a successful treatment using CAR T-cell therapy for a pediatric cancer patient. An 8-year-old boy was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, the fastest-growing human cancer. Fifty-eight days after the first treatment, the child was cancer free. Doctors at UVA Health Children’s hope this treatment will help similar patients in the future.
• After founding the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson formed a committee to recruit the most talented and respected faculty from America and Europe to realize his revolutionary concept in higher education. More than 200 years later, the University’s emphasis on fielding a premier faculty and providing an unsurpassed academic experience continues. We’re attracting and retaining faculty who both excel in scholarship and whose work has had a lasting impact on students, on other scholars, business and society.

At the University of Virginia, we are not just students or faculty or researchers or staff – we are stewards of an iconic institution and the authors of its ongoing legacy. We have a deep sense of responsibility to document and impart insight and context on UVA’s unique culture, history and traditions. As we chronicle its evolution, we become part of it. For the entire UVA community, it's the powerful feeling of belonging to something bigger than yourself and also having it belong to you.

Reasons to believe:

• We’ve codified genuine student self-governance and a student-administered honor code. The University of Virginia has the nation’s oldest entirely student-run honor system, inaugurated in 1842. UVA graduates wear “the honors of Honor” when they walk the Lawn at Final Exercises, taking the values lived on Grounds into the rest of their lives.
• The University of Virginia is the only American university founded to explicitly support self-government as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence and the first not centered around a clerical authority, giving institutional form to Jefferson’s belief that “liberty of conscience” was essential to freedom.
• We have a history of students initiating vital change that disrupts the status quo and drives the University forward. At UVA, our students can take an already powerful and meaningful institution and help make it into something that’s even better.
• We foster relationships founded on trust and betterment throughout the UVA community – in classrooms between students and faculty, in sports between coaches and athletes, in the hospital between patients and providers, and through interactions among colleagues.
• We're keepers of the traditions and rituals that are unique to UVA and bring Wahoos together.
• We’re entrusted with and carry forward the values and reputation of an iconic American institution; it’s a responsibility our community takes seriously.
• Our high alumni engagement proves that the orange and blue don’t fade. What it means to be a Cavalier and the connection to UVA extend beyond Grounds and long after graduation. Our alumni are deeply engaged and committed to the ongoing success of UVA and strengthening of the essential qualities that set the University apart.

Many colleges and universities champion innovation. But how many can claim their very founding was an innovation that forever changed higher education? The University of Virginia was the first of its kind, anywhere. Born of revolutionary ideas and ingenious design, it was destined to become the model for modern universities all over the world. An important point: ingenuity implies application. The University’s purpose to serve society is directly dependent upon the application of knowledge to solve real-world problems. At UVA, the ingenuity continues.

Reasons to believe:

• Thomas Jefferson was a bold innovator who designed the University of Virginia to create an informed citizenry , pursue truth wherever it may lead, and provide an ideal environment to explore “the illimitable freedom of the human mind.” Today, scholars and researchers at UVA have the resources and opportunity to apply unconventional thinking to solve the greatest challenges of our time.
• The Academical Village is at the heart of Jefferson’s design, a physical representation of the cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas that is central to the collaborative nature of UVA.
• Collaborations within our uncommon community create a flinting of expertise from an intentional collision of disciplines, leading to innovation and new solutions, allowing even the brightest among us to achieve what they never could on their own. An example of this ethos in practice: The 3Cavaliers Program developed by the Office of the Vice President for Research provides seed funding to support new, collaborative, high-risk, early-stage research between three UVA faculty members from at least two disparate disciplines to explore research ideas and advance scholarly excellence in their field. More than 390 faculty collaborators have participated so far, supported by more than 1,200 students and postdocs, generating over $20M in follow-on grant funding to expand exciting work.
• Students are encouraged to go beyond fulfilling requirements. They are challenged  to expand their thinking, examine their own beliefs, pursue truth as empathetic listeners and thoughtful debaters, and take with them an appreciation of lifelong learning.
• Considering the unending march of advances across the University to the benefit of society – such as developing new treatments in medicine, advanced cell therapies, new strategies in sustainability, new ways to harness natural energy, discoveries in educational development, insights into utilizing big data, the new Paul and Diane Manning Institute of Biotechnology and development of a biotech hub attracting partnerships, entrepreneurs and investors – the spirit of ingenuity is alive and well at the University of Virginia.

There’s something in the soil, in the living history beneath your feet and in the air you breathe. A feeling of possibility permeates the Grounds, a call to change things for the better. Don’t be lulled into complacency by the classic beauty of your surroundings. This is no artifact – it’s an instrument of change that challenges what has come before for future benefit. Even on the most languid afternoon with spring lending a softness to the air, there remains an underlying urgency to make the most of your time in this special place, to improve your future – then everyone’s.

Reasons to believe:

• The Academical Village design continues to represent and energize the collaborative spirit that characterizes life on Grounds.
• The University of Virginia and Monticello are jointly recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site to highlight their cultural significance and representation of the ideas and ideals that shaped America.
• The conversion of accepted students to enrolled students dramatically increases once they set foot on Grounds.
• Ask any alum who returns to Grounds what makes this place special. They will go on for awhile...or they might not find the words. Experiences that fundamentally change us often must be lived to be understood.
• Walk around and see for yourself.