FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE: October 26, 2007

The Michael G. Foster School of Business celebrated the virtuous cycle of giving at its annual Scholarship Breakfast in mid-October.

The event, which brought together several hundred donors and students, honored the benefactors of scholarships that support 415 undergraduate, MBA, MPAcc and doctoral students at the Foster School of Business – more than one-fifth of all full-time students enrolled. For the 2007-08 academic year, the School has been able to award a total of $1,924,366 in scholarship funds. The bulk of this scholarship money derives from 75 scholarship endowments.

“These are very impressive numbers,” said Dean James Jiambalvo in his opening remarks. “But I think more impressive are the stories behind the numbers – how these scholarships help our students transform their lives and ultimately give back to the community.”

Exhibit A was Patricia Dixon, a junior studying accounting, who shared her personal history with the audience. Dixon was born in the Philippines and raised there and around the United States as her father’s Air Force career dictated. Though her parents were of modest means and schooling, they instilled in their children a deep respect for the transformative power of education. And they squirreled away a little money to help Patricia, their oldest daughter, become the first in their family to attend college. Dixon was accepted by the UW, but the modest savings were going to fall far short of covering the cost of tuition, fees and housing for even one year. That is, until a Costco Diversity Scholarship, and many more to follow, allowed her to not only attend the UW and the Foster School, but also to become immersed in campus life.

This year Dixon is the recipient of the Ernst & Young Accounting Scholarship and the Association of Black Business Students Scholarship. She still works as a student ambassador in the Foster School’s Undergraduate Program office. But she also finds time to serve as president of the Association of Black Business Students, intern with Boeing and Ernst & Young, and volunteer teaching ESL at Seattle’s Asian Counseling and Referral Service and mentoring high school students through the Young Executives of Color program of the UW Business and Economic Development Center.

"I’m proud to say that I’ve never had to use any of the money that my parents saved for me,” she said. “I have paid for college on my own, with enormous help from scholarships.”

Keynote speaker Ron Crockett, president of Emerald Downs, shared a similar story from 50 years earlier. His own humble beginnings were altered forever in 1957 when Jim McCurdy, a Seattle shipyard owner and UW grad, extended him a scholarship to attend the UW. This act swung open the door to Crockett’s successful business career.

I didn’t realize the importance of that scholarship at the time,” he recalled. “But I can safely say that what happened to me afterwards is the direct result of that generosity.”

Crockett never forgot the favor. In the years that followed, he paid forward the gesture, serving the UW as chair of the Campaign for Washington, member of the UW Foundation Board, president of the Foster School Advisory Board, president of the UW Tyee Club and, currently, as chair of UW Athletic Facilities major gift committee and Tyee executive committee.

His philanthropy has risen alongside his own economic prominence. When he first started an aerospace service and repair business, he began investing nine percent of every employee’s salary in the company. When he sold to BF Goodrich in 1988, he had created many millionaires.

Today he is founder of his family foundation, a member of the UW President’s Club and benefactor of the Ron Crockett Endowed Scholarship Fund that supports five MBA students at the Foster School of Business.

His message to students: “There will be a time when each of you will be in the position where you can give back, and I encourage you to start early.”

Still in the thick of her college years, Dixon is doing just that. In addition to her enormous volunteer service, she also has begun sending a portion of her paychecks to support the education and well-being of her family in the Philippines who still live in huts without electricity or running water.

“They ask me how I’m able to go to school, so I explain what scholarships are,” she said. “And they are surprised that there are people out there giving money away that they could never make in a lifetime. I’ve learned to appreciate everything that I have in my life – especially my access to education.

“ I’m giving back because of the generosity and kindness that I have received.”