Seniors to give $50,000 scholarship and determine guidelines for gift

By Liz Weeker

Twenty seniors met in the Williman Room Tuesday night, for a dinner discussion of an endowed scholarship, this year's senior class gift.

After fundraising, the scholarship should meet its $50,000 target. That amount will be invested and the annual interest earned will be awarded to a student, explained Nate Hearn who works with university relations.

The last two senior classes also gifted $50,000 endowed scholarships, but according to Hearn, this is the first time the seniors have had a hand in determining the criteria of the scholarship.

"I don't think in the history of Santa Clara there has been a group of 20 people who have debated the merits of a class scholarship," he said.

Hearn explained some of the technical aspects of the fundraising, but Senior Class President, Michael Lynch, led the meeting, which was open to all seniors interested.

"Does anyone know what last year's class gifted? They left the class $20,000 in debt," Lynch said.

This year the senior class leaders aim to break even with their expenses.

The goal of the discussion was to determine three or four ideas to submit to the senior class for a vote via e-mail, Lynch said.

"Our scholarship should reflect our values," said Lynch. "What stands out for our class?"

The group pitched a wide range of ideas for qualities to determine the scholarship's recipients, going back and forth between need based and merit based criteria. Some students even suggested that the scholarship should be both need and merit based.

"I say it should be something GPA related," senior Trevor Hansen said early in the discussion. "Performance is more important."

"Maybe it should be for students who really want to come to Santa Clara," said senior Chris Proctor. "I know we're always trying to get people who want to go to Stanford to come here. But Santa Clara was my first choice."

The discussion was at times light hearted, with one student suggesting that the scholarship should pay for a student's year supply of coffee, or "You have to be able to taste wine really well," another senior said.

At the end of the meeting, students had narrowed their ideas down to about four main scholarship possibilities. They included one based on the environment, another related to Emergency Medical Team members, a third for performing arts and lastly, one awarded by chartered leadership heads.

"I liked the one where it's going to be nomination based, where the eight heads of the charted organizations get together and determine who over the past three years have contributed the most," Lynch later said in an interview.

"I thought it went great," he said of Tuesday's meeting. "I mean, I still wish we had even more participation."

Lynch plans to hold another meeting, tentatively before Senior Beer Night in January.

"The main thing that we got out of the meeting is that it's hard to get a value that encompasses the entire senior class," he said. "But I'm happy that we got that sentiment that we can agree this is a great school. We should give back."

Funding for the scholarship will come from a combination of the Senior Parent Night auction, a baseball event in April, hosted by the San Jose Giants and profits from senior beer and wine nights.

Lynch plans to sell senior class souvenir mugs at the senior beer and wine nights.

"Normally the Bronco runs the event at a loss," said Lynch. "This year we're going to make some money on this."

Both Hearn and Lynch acknowledged that a considerable amount of the funding will come from parent donations.

Contact Liz Weeker at (408) 554-4546 or eweeker@scu.edu.