When Marymount California University officially closed educational operations in August 2022, it was a very difficult and sad time for everyone who was involved with the University. Indeed, the Peninsula had lost a gem.  This difficult decision brought to a close the 54-year life of an amazing institution. Throughout its history, Marymount was able to provide its students with an exceptional and comfortable education. Individual attention and personal impact was a cornerstone of what Marymount offered its students over the years.

So, while the dust was still settling after the closure, the Board of Trustees moved quickly to establish a new phase in the life of Marymount, and we created the Marymount Education Foundation to productively utilize the proceeds from the sale of the properties. Simply stated, we wanted an opportunity to extend the legacy of Marymount beyond our closing-date with a commitment to continuing to promote the education of young people from Southern California, albeit, in a very different way than our previous history. Make no mistake, there are great young people in our community and there is a need to let them shine and thrive.

A new Board of Trustees was established consisting of people formerly associated with Marymount—Board members, administrators and educators. We worked diligently to bring to life a new mission to help students realize their full potential by providing funds and support in the most impactful way we could. “Impact” is the key concept. We decided the greatest benefit would come by giving relatively few, high value scholarships to students who demonstrated high potential and high financial need. From our Marymount experience we were aware of a number of things:  1) first generation or high financial need students often have restrictive “environmental” constraints on their education such as household duties or obligations including a need to work part-time jobs and/or help with raising younger siblings, 2) many families do not have parental support for higher education nor much knowledge of what is required to obtain a university degree or what the long-term benefits might be, and 3) experientially, we know that students transferring from a two-year community college often have the highest likelihood of graduation. In fact, this was the original mission of Marymount College when it was established on the Peninsula in 1968.

These individual historical “learnings” had a big influence on the mission of the Foundation as we embarked on our new role in the community. We wanted to commit and focus on our “Marymount Scholars” successfully completing their graduation requirements. We further decided that our scholarship funding would be roughly split between incoming freshmen and transfer students from local community colleges. But, the truly differentiating thing about the Foundation was that we would try to give more than money. We wanted to provide support and encouragement in addition to financial support for either two or four-years.  We knew of the trials and tribulations they would face so we resolved to be a resource to help them succeed as long as they met the requirements of their chosen university.  Anyone can provide funding but very few strive to provide non-financial mentorship for the journey to success.

To keep the overhead efficiently low, our model was to partner with a few universities that embodied a similar set of values and student-centered focus as Marymount had done throughout its history. We initially partnered with Mount Saint Mary’s University in West LA and Saint Mary’s College in Moraga.  This allowed our partners to do the administrative work of reviewing the student applications for admission and determining the student’s verified financial need and screening for characteristics that we determined as appropriate to be a “Marymount Scholar.” We started slowly with four scholars as we grew into our new role as a Foundation, and learned a great deal. We expanded our number of scholars to ten in our second class of awardees and added new partner schools:  La Sierra University in Riverside and Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. This Fall we will offer twenty-two scholarships—a mix of freshmen and transfer students and we are looking to potentially add two new partner schools.

Robyn Jones, MEF Executive Director, has spent many hours mentoring our scholars—particularly as freshmen adapting to “college life”. Sometimes dealing with a “crisis” and other times helping to direct the student to University resources that are available for assistance. Our intent is to not replace University support but to augment when helpful.  And sometimes just to be a friend-in-need. Robyn also strives to create a Marymount Scholar “community” by providing opportunities for our scholars to interact with one another and create their own support network. This has been wildly successful—a lot of work but gratifying and exciting. Robyn is the administrator of the Foundation but she has also become a friend, a “house mother”, and occasionally a disciplinarian for our scholars.  Robyn says, “We provide the scholarship funds, but that is only the beginning.”  As one of our scholars, Michelle Leoncio (class of 2027) said, “I didn’t know they would be involved as much as they are and cared as much as they did.”

The Foundation has recently taken an important step forward by hiring our second employee, Payton Sprouse, as Associate Program Director. Payton is a wonderful addition as she was a member of our last graduating class at Marymount and earned the distinction as the Class of 2022 Valedictorian. She will absolutely be an exceptional mentor and role model for our scholars.  She has been there and done that and she speaks from the heart with her commitment to each of them. She will help them through her example, high energy, and heart to lead and guide. We welcome Payton.

Another of our scholars, Audrey Vargas (class of 2025) summed up her time as a Marymount Scholar, “Receiving this scholarship has allowed me to attend the University of my dreams--debt and worry free. I can now go on to be the first in my family to receive my bachelor’s degree and to attend law school.” Her desire is to give back to her community.

Audrey’s comment pretty well sums up what Marymount Education Foundation desires and the legacy we are striving to continue in the years ahead. We are excited about the potential for providing a positive impact on the lives of some incredible young people here in Southern California.