Letters: Fall 2018

Your letters: fire, immigration, Fulbrights, basketball brilliance, and more.

Spring 2018 cover

Our Spring 2018 cover: Jeanette Scroggins, overcome by the ashes of her aunt’s Coffey Park home

The Fire This Time

Great article by Kerry Benefield on the Santa Rosa fire (Spring 2018). Cardinal Newman High School’s principal, Graham Rutherford ’81, and I were classmates at SCU. Good guy.

Bill Bagley ’81
Bellflower, California

Turning Loss into Gain

More delight: a response to our digital feature (and now in print in this edition) about a program by SCU’s Food and Agribusiness Institute that seeks to put food left by farmers in the fields on the tables of those in need. —Ed.

What a fabulous program. There’s so much food waste in our country and so many hungry people who need fruits and vegetables. Great work, all of you!

Claudia McIsaac
Professor of English, SCU

Speech! Speech!

Excitement over 2018 commencement—with cheers for speeches by valedictorian Athena Nguyen ’18 and Kirk O. Hanson, who served for 17 years as executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. —Ed.

Fact: The world needs more Broncos.

Michele Goins

Congratulations to all! Congratulations to Kirk on his honorary doctorate and especially his wonderful commencement speech! You’re officially a Bronco now!!!

Kristi Markkula Bowers ’90

Grounds for Detention


Thank you for the excellent article about the work of Christina Fialho ’06, J.D. ’12 (Spring 2018). Thank you also, Santa Clara, for providing a pathway through the Santa Clara Community Action Program (SCCAP) and the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education (that also led her to Catholic Charities) for this outstanding person to define her mission. The article sheds light on the impact her work is having in affecting the lives of those who are in most need.

Ed Alvarez ’60, J.D. ’65
President, The Foundation for Hispanic Education
Shell Beach, California

Best in the West

The latest U.S. News & World Report college rankings esteem SCU the best regional university in the West. How cool is that? Some of your responses on Facebook. —Ed.

Of course, those of us who went there knew this already!

Kristi McKiney ’77

Due to its storied alumni, no doubt.

James Hutchinson ’05

Fantastic! Thank you Fr. Mike Engh and the rest of the Santa Clara team for all that you do! My son, Tony, is starting his second year in the business school, and we (LMU grads) couldn’t be more proud of SCU!

Rick Pierce

Perfect timing U.S. News & World Report! My freshman daughter starts her SCU adventure this weekend.

Jen H. Kim

I loved my years at Santa Clara. It was just the right-size fit! It has awesome professors and a beautiful campus with a strong sense of community and service through Christ!

Gloria Sigala ’97

Have two of my grandchildren attending … Awesome!!

Larry Davis

And to be the best of citizens of the world, your graduates must exemplify not only intellectual genius, but civility, kindness, compassion, ingenuity, detente. May God bless you all in this endeavor. My grandson will soon be a product of your institution.

Mary Lowe
Foamfingerno1

Keep on improving excellent education for the community and everyone. God bless the University!

Yifei Pei

Our New Digital Home

Want to hear the sounds of our stories, dig into the details of an engaging image, or share something you learned in Santa Clara Magazine? Our new online magazine offers all that and more niftiness. On top of going deep into what you see here, the updated digital mag helps us bring the Santa Clara story to audiences far and wide. Visit, return, and share the stories—including yours­—about the people who shape this amazing place.

Sound, movement, action—Our mag’s website redesign optimizes the digital sphere like never before, presenting a multimedia experience of Broncos in the world, in real time.

Lg 581 Nash

Steve Nash ’96, clean-cut and clean-shaven, back in his Bronco days of ball battling the BYU Cougars

Steve Nash ’96—Welcome to the Hall of Fame!

The news we were expecting came this spring—and we led with a digital feature the day it broke. Read lots more in this digital edition. You will also find some other basketball news in these pages. But first, some celebration. —Ed.

Congratulations, Steve. It was fun watching you at Santa Clara University and your professional basketball career. Wishing you good fortune in the future. Thank you.

Frank Melrose, San Jose

I remember you when I was a trainer at SCU. You were one of the hardest working athletes there and took your job seriously. Usually the first one there to practice shooting around and the last to leave. Congratulations!

Allison Crowle Wynn ’92, Sacramento, California

How Did You Win a Fulbright?

More news we were delighted to bring as it broke this spring: eight Fulbrights for Broncos, plus a Udall and a Knight-Hennessy. The number means that Santa Clara University is one of the top producers of Fulbrights in the country. Meet them starting on page 9. Here’s one proud response to the news. —Ed.

Congratulations to all. I am so honored to have accompanied many of you on your journey. Go forth.

Spencer Arnold, Director of Global Operations, Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, SCU

This Summer Girls Ran the World

Swift Clara, the Bey Hive, honorary mayorships, and more: This summer, fanbases of mainly women helped rebound the U.S. economy.

A Billion for Tomorrow

A billion in support of scholarships, research, and facilities. Find out what it all means

Super Bloom!

What happens after the rains fall can be glorious.

Transformation

Play—whether via imagination or with perspective—never stops being important to a person’s development.