Help is on the way for some of the most at-risk students at California State University Long Beach. According to a Cal State Long Beach announcement, the launch of the Shakarian Leads Endowment Fund comes at a time when Beach students face additional pressures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The newly established Shakarian LEADS Endowment (Leading, Educating, and Developing Students) also challenges the university to raise an additional $5 million for these programs by 2021. Programs that will benefit from the gift include the Bob Murphy Access Center, Mental Health and Wellness, Autism Services-LIFE Project, Basic Needs and Guardian Scholars.
The new gift to Cal State Long Beach by local resident Louise Shakarian-Ukleja will rename a university building the Shakarian Family Student Success Center in recognition of a wide-ranging investment that will fund a host of programs aimed at student success. The naming was approved by the California State University Board of Trustees at their meeting on March 24.
“Louise’s investment in our students could not come at a more necessary time,” said Michele Cesca, vice president for University Relations and Development, in a statement. “This era of the coronavirus crisis has resulted in a marked increase in emergency and other basic needs of our students as well as concerns about the mental and physical health of our community. I cannot overstate the impact of her leadership and that of other investors in these programs in the lives of our students.”
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