May 13, 2025
Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond made an indelible mark on the lives of Missourians throughout more than 40 years in public office, including as the youngest person ever elected governor of the state in 1973 and as someone who served four terms representing Missouri in the United States Senate. Bond, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 86, was clear he wanted a big part of his legacy to be encouraging young people from across the state to travel abroad and become global citizens.
In 2018, Bond established the Bond International Scholars program, which has provided study abroad scholarships to dozens of students from the University of Missouri–St. Louis as well as the University of Missouri–Columbia. The scholarship program has supported more than 60 students from either UMSL or MU as they’ve studied abroad since its founding, and the students have had the chance to immerse themselves in new cultures in at least 24 countries across Central and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
