USD President's Report and Honor Roll of Donors 1993

Real-life mentors can be found in abundance among the ranks of USD alumni. They include: Be rtha Pendleton '89 (Ed.O.), ch,1mpion of edu at ion reform. After 35 yea rs as a teacher and administrator in the San Diego city schoo l sys tem, Pendleton was named this yea r as the system's first female and first African- Ame rican superintendent. + Sandra Bru '66, an alumna of the College fo r Women, whose Sandi ca t scu lpture, are so ld in o\'er 40 countries around the world. Brue hares her en trepreneurial know-ho\\" through participation on the executive committee of USO's orporate As ociatcs program and the board of directors of the Pri\'ate Industry Council. A very special group of USO assoc iates live out the values they received from a very special group of women. The Association of the Alumnae of the Sacred Heart (AASH) support the continuing work of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. This year, the AASH bestowed its "Car Unum" award on USO's Sister Virginia McMonagle, RSC], for her outstanding work as an educator and a missionary. THE GIFT OF ECONOMIC NOURISHMENT Over the past 20 years, from his perch as dean of students, Tom Burke has watched a steady stream of students, parents and returning alumni arrive in San Diego for the sole purpose of visiting Alcala Park. When USO constituents come from around the country to spend time on campus, they invariably spend money off campus. During their stay in San Diego, they rent condominiums or lodge in hotels, they eat in restaurants, they shop at malls and they visit tourist attractions. In short, they help nour- ish the local economy. "If we were to undertake a study of USO's impact on the economy outside the gates, I have no doubt we would find the university among the top 20 eco- nomic contributors," Burke says. Such a study is now in progress. Andrew Narwold, assistant professor of economics, and his students at the School of Business Administration have been measuring the ways that USD contributes to the economic health of the region. Some of their early findings are: Approxim,1tcly 6,000 students rent apartments or cnndominiums, huy groce ries and clothing, hm·e their ca rs fueled and fixed, and buy other goods and ser\'ices frnm local me rchants. More than 1,000 people arc d irec tly employed by USO, and scores of \'en- dnrs arc hired hy uni\·ersity departments on a regular basis. Each summer, hundreds o( people tra\'cl to San Diego to attend conferences and curn·ent ions at the USD campus. Some of those ga therings, like the 199 l Ge neral Chapter of the Franciscans of the Orde r uf Friars Minur, !raw wide~prcad attent ion to the attract ions of the San Diego area .

rank second only to Stanford in graduation rates among West Coast Division I programs. But the Toreros never could have predicted the joy they would find in playing big brother and sister to young visitors. "When schoolchildren come up here to attend ballgames as guests of our ath- letes, they seem a little overwhelmed at first," Iannacone says with a smile. "You can tell by the looks on their faces that they're thinking, 'How could there be so many friendly people taking an interest in me?' "But, little by little, our students bring these youngsters out of their shells," he adds. "They start to feel at home on a college campus. They start to wonder if maybe someday they could go to a school like this to play and learn like the older kids." Many of USO's programs aimed at community or professional service attain another important goal: outreach to young people who need encouragement or direction. The Linda Vista Kids Project, now in its third year, was launched after Hughes learned that 60 percent of neighborhood vandalism was the work of children age 10 or younger who had no after-school supervision. Three after- noons a week, undergraduates and schoolchildren play sports, do homework and engage in other constructive activities. For those seeking guidance in choosing a career path, USO's professional schools offer targeted mentor programs such as the School of Law's annual "Multicultural Law Day," which brings 50 to 100 undergraduates and high school students to Warren Hall for mock law classes and mock trials. Other programs augment guidance and encouragement with another impor- tant incentive: direct financial aid. At the Philip Y. Hahn School of Nursing, nurses of diverse cultures who want to take on a leadership role in the health care field can apply for Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowships to undertake full- time graduate nursing studies. A similar venture at the School of Education is enabling African-American male college graduates to become credentialed as teachers (see story on page 17). Students and faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering have found an unusual way to pique the interest of nascent scientists. Last year, the department's annual Walk On Water contest added a category for high school students with the skills to design "buoyancy shoes" and the courage to pilot them across the surface of the Sports Center pool. "It was gratifying to see the high school competitors interacting with our col- lege students and with the professional engineers who participated," says Thomas Kanneman, director of the department. "Those young men and women and their parents came away from the contest with a new apprecia- tion for the excitement of engineering. They now see engineers as real-life problem-solvers ."

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