Mission Statement:
Winton and Carolyn Blount
"As you enter the Blount Undergraduate Initiative, you are beginning a unique experience in liberal arts education. We believe that it will be an adventure, one that will change your life and the way you see the world.
A liberal arts education enlightens. It teaches us how to think, how to learn, and how to explore new areas of knowledge. It opens our minds to new ideas. It informs and inspires us with the timeless ideals that have shaped our civilization. Knowledge enables us to discover new capacities within ourselves and to use those capacities for good purposes. There are few experiences in life that are so transforming and lasting or so beneficial to the progress and refinement of our society as a liberal education.
That is why we founded and established the Blount Undergraduate Initiative. It embraces the proposition that a nation advances and grows by providing opportunities not to some of its people, but to all of them; that the best of higher education is not the province of the elite, but should be open to anyone with the ability and determination to obtain it. Our aim is to provide you with an exemplary liberal arts education so that in the years to come you may become more useful citizens and contribute to the improvement of your families, communities, and professions, and to the larger society.
Being a Blount Scholar confers special status. Throughout the state, you will be an example for other Alabamians who look to you as inspiration for developing their own abilities. At the University of Alabama, you help to set the standard of intellectual achievement and are role models for your classmates.