A Thriving Tomorrow

To launch a university onto the national stage requires leadership and community. To head up Innovating with a Mission: The Campaign for SCU, Broncos turned to some of our Valley’s biggest names. Co-chairs Susan and John A. Sobrato ’60 and Karen and Jeff Miller ’73, MBA ’76 agreed to organize and conduct outreach. They also put their own funds to work.

As part of the Innovating with a Mission fundraising campaign to expand campus resources, provide increasing opportunities for scholarship, and help Santa Clara’s values reach the larger world, the Millers gave a multi-million gift to advance social entrepreneurship through the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

The Miller Center works with businesses on a mission to do good. Through the years, it has provided startup money, mentoring, and support to more than 1,300 social enterprises, provided 162 fellowships, and impacted the lives of at least 100 million around the globe.

The Sobratos gave Santa Clara’s largest gift to date to help create a 300,000-square-foot STEM campus. The Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation opened to students as they returned to campus following the initial COVID-19 outbreak. They were welcomed to state- of-the-art lab space and room to explore and collaborate across disciplines.

In just a few years, the campus-within-a-campus has sparked creative projects that bring together science, art, business, technology, and engineering.