For many college students, the journey toward a dream career doesn’t end on graduation day. For aspiring doctors, lawyers, teachers, and business executives, the gatekeepers for the next steps of their pursuits are the standardized tests that follow, such as the MCAT, LSAT, PRAXIS, and GRE. 

In addition to achieving the test scores required by their target programs, many students face an additional, invisible barrier long before they ever take a seat in a testing center.

The cost of exam prep and registration can climb quickly — an expense that too often forces talented, hard-working students to put their ambitions on hold. A recent gift from Jonathan Smith ’14, chair of the scholarship committee of the Bellarmine Alumni Board of Directors, and his wife, Catie ’14, MAEd’17, is helping level the field for those students. 

As a partner and private wealth advisor at Encore Wealth Management Group, Jonathan helps clients align financial resources with life goals. A recent turn of events created a perfect convergence of professional connection and personal generosity to support Knights pursuing advanced degrees. The Smiths helped establish the Patricia Garrett Family Testing Support Endowment to provide perpetual financial support to defray costs associated with standardized testing. 

The initial inspiration for their gift was sparked during an Alumni Board meeting, where Jonathan heard about a similar fund for pre-law students and realized the need to expand support across career paths. However, the process to create the endowment came later when a client of Jonathan’s firm was searching for a meaningful project to support through a Donor Advised Fund (DAF). Jonathan immediately connected the donor with the purpose and worked with Bellarmine’s development team to solidify the details. As conversations progressed, he and Catie decided to contribute to the fund as well.

“We are incredibly blessed to be in a position to give back early in our lives, and it is a direct result of the profound support we experienced as students,” Jonathan said. “We had a lot of help along the way, and we needed to make sure we were giving back to the place that brought us together.” 

The Smiths’ commitment to Bellarmine stretches back to their own days on campus, where they met. Service-minded even as students, Catie was a resident assistant, and Jonathan was a peer minister — now known as Spiritual Peer Mentors (see profile on page 41) — in the program’s early days. Today, they remain deeply embedded in the university community. While Jonathan serves on the Alumni Board, Catie continues to foster the next generation of educators as an adjunct faculty member in the Annsley Frazier Thornton School of Education. 

Beyond the couple’s own connection, the university is woven into their extended family, with Jonathan’s mother, brothers, and a sister-in-law holding Bellarmine degrees. His younger brother works as a staff member on campus.

With this fund, Jonathan and Catie are proving that a Bellarmine education is about more than the years spent on the hill — it’s about ensuring every student has the resources to face their next challenge. 

“This community creates young people who know how to think and how to operate in the world,” Jonathan said. “We need to keep that talent here, and for us, that means helping remove roadblocks so future generations can excel in their careers, too.”

By removing the financial anxiety of a $300 exam registration fee or a $1,000 prep course, the endowment ensures that economic background doesn’t dictate a student’s career trajectory. 

“These funds make a tremendous difference for our students aspiring to a graduate professional program,” said David C. Scott, J.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of philosophy and director of the pre-law program. “Because test scores are a major factor in students' graduate admissions and scholarship outcomes, access to test prep and registration costs can completely change their career paths and lives. It is difficult to overstate how much donors like Jonathan and Catie open doors for talented undergraduates from all backgrounds and income levels.”