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During an award ceremony on May 2, St. Olaf College was officially presented with the 2024–25 Davis Cup by Phil Geier, co-founder and executive director of the Davis United World College (UWC) Scholars program. 

The Davis Cup recognizes the collegiate institution with the most enrolled students from UWC schools in an incoming class. With 86 first-year Davis Scholars on campus this academic year, St. Olaf edged out 104 other schools to win the cup. Many of the Davis UWC Scholars at St. Olaf attended the presentation, along with faculty, staff, administrators, and special guests. 

“This is your award,” St. Olaf President Susan Rundell Singer told those in attendance as Geier presented her with the cup. “The future of the world is so much brighter because each of you is going to carry the light you have within you, and the light that you’ve collectively built here on the Hill, out into the world.” 

St. Olaf is currently home to 259 Davis Scholars, representing 88 countries and all 18 UWC campuses — a number that will grow with the arrival of 80 new students this fall. The college’s expanding global community has made a visible mark on campus culture.  

“You bring the world to this community,” Geier said to students. “You bring conversations, you bring insights, you bring prejudices, you bring yourselves. This is so critical to the learning environment.”

Geier returned to St. Olaf just one year to the day after receiving an honorary degree from the college during the 2024 Honors Day convocation. He reflected on the founding of the Davis UWC Scholars Program in 2000 with philanthropist Shelby Davis, an effort sparked by watching talented students struggle to afford higher education. Since then, the program has grown to support more than 4,500 students annually across 105 American colleges and universities. Over 15,000 Davis Scholars have graduated in the program’s 25-year history – with more than 550 of those being Oles after the college joined the initiative in 2008. 

“This cup is a recognition of the commitment,” Geier said. “And this commitment is a partnership. We have a major partnership with St. Olaf because of its resources, its faculty, its Board of Regents, its community, and all of its students. We’re all in this together, and this is simply a symbol of our appreciation for the effort that everybody here puts in to bring Davis Scholars to St. Olaf and educate them.”

The celebration was also an occasion to highlight the behind-the-scenes work that makes international student success possible. Senior Associate Dean of Admissions and Director of International Recruitment Jenny Howenstine, who leads Davis Scholar enrollment at the college, thanked the admissions team and campus partners for their support — and most importantly, the students themselves. 

“We could do all the recruitment in the world, but if you weren’t talking about your experiences at St. Olaf, if you weren’t telling people back on your campuses or from your national committees what your experience is like, no one would come,” Howenstine said. “It’s all about how you experience life at St. Olaf and how you relay that.”

As the event concluded, students, staff, and faculty gathered for group photos — and, as many were reminded, for one more plate of food. But the moment was less about ceremony and more  about community. 

“You make St. Olaf a better place,” Howenstine told the students. “This is a place you can always call home, you will always be welcome here.”