Scholarship Established by LMU Parents to Attract and Retain Diverse Students
LMU parents Jim and Carol (the names were changed at the donors’ request) were invited to attend an LMU Parent and Family Leadership Council meeting when they heard a student speak about his scholarship from LMU and what it enabled him to do. With scholarship support, he could afford a trip to San Francisco to secure an internship. The two were so moved they decided to support the university’s initiative to attract and retain a diverse student body by endowing a scholarship for a student with demonstrated financial need with preference for a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or people of color) student.
“We were inspired by this student,” said Carol. “It made me think about how I wished more students would have access to an LMU education. Our world is so stratified between rich and poor. The possibility that we can help create a more just society by helping a student with some extra support is very meaningful to us.”
Jim and Carol saw firsthand how LMU has impacted their children. Their son graduated in 2021 from the LMU Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts and their daughter is a current student in the LMU College of Communications and Fine Arts. Both have been active in sports and Greek Life during their years at LMU.
“We’re not Catholic, but our kids went to a Catholic high school, and the emphasis on service and the Jesuit approach to inquiry within education was appealing to our kids,” said Jim. “Our son was able to travel abroad to Italy and came home enthused about art. Our daughter started rowing and it’s given her a balanced, healthy life. I love LMU’s ideals, it’s focus on integrity, intellectual rigor, and being in the world and of the world.”
This isn’t the first time Jim and Carol have supported education. In their hometown, they’ve been part of a program that’s offered free tuition to middle school students, which later expanded to support college students.
“I think it was the same time we were supporting this program that we thought we should help a student at LMU,” Jim said. “We’ve grown ever more conscious of how privileged we are, and our children are, and so this is a small gesture we can make to combat unfairness and injustice. In some ways it feels insignificant relative to the need, but it’s a tangible thing we can do.”
Carol added, “We hope this gives someone a step up and a springboard that will help them later in life. There are so many support systems at LMU to take advantage of that students may not have access to at a larger university. I want someone to be able to go to LMU and have all the same benefits that my child had.”
To learn more about endowing a scholarship at LMU, please contact Dan Montoya, executive director of development, major gifts, at 310.338.1796 or daniel.montoya@lmu.edu. To support endowed scholarships, visit here.