Future and Past

Once a scholarship student, now a scholarship donor—The Catala Club builds the future.

Mary Atwell ’78, J.D. ’81 knows what a scholarship means to a student. “I went through on all scholarship aid,” she says.

Today she helps fund scholarships as president of the Catala Club—an all-female group with 300-plus members who pool donations to help students.

What started in the 1930s as a club to care for the vestments of Jesuit priests on campus today manages a $22 million endowed scholarship fund.

In 2018 it distributed more than $740,000 to students.

It is in those students that Atwell sees the future—and the past.

“This all became important to me when I realized that there are tons of kids at Santa Clara just like I was in 1978,” Atwell says. You can support scholarships, too: campaign.scu.edu.

post-image MARY ATWELL ILLUSTRATION BY ALESSANDRA DE CRISTOFARO
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Nicolás Lell Benavides ’10 shares how his Santa Clara experience and passion for composition led to the creation of his largest project to date: “Dolores.”

Haunted or Not? We Ask the Winchester Historian

“One day, I was at the house very early when no one else was there, and I heard the clearest footsteps treading on the metal roof above me.” Meet Janan Boehme ’81, the first-ever historian of the Winchester Mystery House.

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A California Leader

Richard Riordan ’52 leaves a lasting California legacy as a distinguished leader, committed philanthropist, and a visionary innovator.