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This endowment offers scholarship opportunities to students at the College of Liberal Arts, as well as to those at the University's College of Law, Atkinson Graduate School of Management and the School of Education. The major gift also includes scholarship benefits for students attending the inner-city Los Angeles high school from which the donor graduated.
At a lunch announcing the gift, Vice President for Enrollment Jim Sumner acknowledged the importance of the gift with the comment that, "the great shortcoming historically in a Willamette education is in its cultural, ethnic and religious diversity." The efforts of this donor to help bring more diversity to Willamette's student body began with a series of annual gifts over the past several years. The impact of these investments in diversity is reflected in this year's freshman class. At 18 percent minority students, the class of 2003, Sumner noted, is the most diverse class in Willamette's 158-year history. The number of minority students at Willamette is on the rise, and this gift will further enhance Willamette's efforts to become a more diverse community, he noted.
Willamette recently identified diversity as one of its five institutional priorities. The new scholarships will supplement other efforts already underway at the University. An exchange program has been established with Fisk University, a historically black college in Nashville, Tenn., which will begin next fall. Also available next fall is the Minority Graduate Fellowship, a program that will bring a minority graduate student to Willamette to complete his or her dissertation.
The recent gift will have a profound impact on the University and at the donor's high school -- as many as 52 students will benefit from the scholarships every year. In addition to the scholarships for minority students, the gift provides additional need-based scholarships and scholarships to assist students in studying abroad and students engaged in other cocurricular activities.
"With the establishment of the trust, I hope to build upon the solid foundations at both my old high school in Los Angeles and at Willamette University," said the donor. "I want to ensure that they continue to foster an environment that embraces a full range of learning experiences, with integrity, compassion and respect for everyone within their respective communities as well as those outside of their communities."
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