Vira I Heinz Program

For more than 70 years, the ideals of the late Vira I. Heinz have shaped a scholarship awarded in her name to provide global travel, study and service opportunities for college students who have not yet traveled abroad. 

Vira believed deeply in the power of international experience to transform individuals and expand their sense of possibility. 

Today, the Vira I. Heinz (VIH) Program for Global Leadership, administered by the University of Pittsburgh, provides students at participating colleges and universities across Pennsylvania with leadership development, civic engagement opportunities and funding to support a summer study abroad experience.  

 Vira Heinz hiking on Catalina Island, 1923.

This unique program began with Vira I. Heinz herself in 1954. Moved by the life-changing power of foreign travel, the widow of H.J. Heinz’s son Clifford and the first woman to serve on the board of the H.J. Heinz Co. wrote $1,000 personal checks to cover the costs of sending female University of Pittsburgh students to Europe for the summer. The larger public notoriety from Vira’s involvement helped close the gap in gender-based inequities in travel–study opportunities for women at the time. Her vision has since bridged critical gaps not only for those first recipients but also for today’s scholars, who hail from a diverse range of identities.  

In 2026, the program’s eligibility criteria was amended to expand participation opportunity for all students, regardless of gender.  

In the tradition of the Heinz family’s commitment to providing resources to allow people to better themselves, the VIH Program has grown from a singular travel experience to a robust scholarship through which recipients can add depth to a major course of study, test a possible career choice or find solutions to acute challenges at home.  

To date, the Vira I. Heinz Program for Women in Global Leadership has awarded more than 600 scholarships, providing students the opportunity for travel to more than 60 countries and the support to complete nearly 190 civic engagement projects. 

The program received a meaningful redesign in 2008 when three Heinz Endowments board members—Judith Davenport, Wendy Mackenzie and Shirley Malcom—recognized the potential of this cultural and education program to more deliberately incubate future  leaders. They worked with staff to retool the original legacy travel scholarship, in its current form as a competitive leadership-development initiative. The mentoring, supervision and in-person retreats that accompany the scholarship and travel further support participants’ growth into community leaders with international experience.  

Though Europe is still a popular destination, trips to Cuba, Russia, Mongolia and Nigeria have also been approved, and the program prioritizes global perspectives among its other established values of self-knowledge, valuing others, integrity and accountability.  

Program alumni are poised for success in not only post-secondary education but also as responsible citizens and leaders at home. The VIH Program remains a signature opportunity for students to realize academic, professional and personal goals in line with our overarching mission to invest in the leaders of a more durable, whole and just future. 

For more information, visit www.viraheinz.pitt.edu.