Donor Impact Report 2024-2025

attend USD School of Law, and practice in the legal profession. She is grateful for all that she was given as an entering student and often speaks about “paying it forward” with your philanthropy—a concept of repaying a good deed by doing a kindness for someone else instead of paying back the original benefactor. In Erin’s case, she has achieved both goals. She has more than paid back USD’s investment in her education while also paying forward for the next generation of young alumni. Those who have benefited from the exceptional generosity of USD law alumni are great in number and brimming with gratitude. Often, students proclaim they are without the words to adequately describe what it means to receive scholarships funded by people they have

never met. In some ways—it is bewildering to imagine what motivates people to care about others in this way. As students and donors prepare to meet one another for the first time at the University’s “Scholarship Appreciation Luncheon” each spring, it is astonishing to see the similarities between donors and the students they support. There are letters of appreciation, insightful conversations about plans for the future, but the best part of all is the shared sense of joy in knowing what it means to truly bless and to be blessed by someone’s acts of open generosity. While these are but a few examples of the impact made by scholarship supporters, at USD we celebrate and appreciate every single family who has sacrificed in order to support student scholarships.

IMPACT STORIES

Sean Cunningham and Erin Gibson ’03 (JD)

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UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO SCHOOL OF LAW