History! Live!

Marc Del Piero ’75, J.D. ’78 dreams big. But arranging an all-expenses-paid trip for every 8th-grade student in Monterey County to see Hamilton—that’s 9,000 children—surpasses nearly everyone’s imagination. Not his.

After a lengthy correspondence between Del Piero and Luis Miranda, father of Hamilton writer Lin-Manuel Miranda and coordinator of the production’s charitable arm, tickets to the San Francisco showing were secured at a discounted rate.

An ambitious history buff, Del Piero serves on the board of the King Foundation, a Monterey County charity devoted to improving education about the U.S. Constitution. An estimated $2 million from the foundation will get students to the show in San Francisco and back.

While the former SCU history major was brainstorming program possibilities, Del Piero remembered a comment made by SCU History Professor George Giacomini ’56 that history is as much about rare individuals as it is about significant events. Del Piero says, “We want our students to learn that they are the heirs of the American legacy of democracy, and that it is their duty to preserve and protect the idea that our American concept of democracy embodies the goal of equality in liberty.”