Apr 24, 2008 - Claremont, Calif. - Current President’s Scholars, finalists for the 2008-09 President’s Scholars Program, corporate sponsors and alumni came together in April for the Inaugural President’s Scholars Recognition Dinner. The event, held on campus, was created to recognize the corporations, national labs, foundations and individual donors that have sponsored this important program.

Initiated just three years ago, the President’s Scholars Program is a comprehensive scholarship program for highly qualified students who are members of groups traditionally underrepresented at the college and in science and engineering. This embraces a wide range of students, including women, ethnic minorities, students with disabilities and students who are the first in their families to attend college.

Prior to the dinner, the college hosted an event for 30 of the finalists for the 2008-09 President’s Scholars Program scholarships who were on campus for interviews. The event involved a panel discussion comprised of corporate sponsors from Boeing, Raytheon and Southern California Edison, as well as current President’s Scholars and HMC faculty.

Dean of Faculty Robert Cave served as the event’s emcee and began the evening with a presentation on why diversity is key to HMC’s mission. “Problem-solving requires diverse input and we need bright ideas from lots of people,” Cave said. “The world is diverse. We can’t serve it if we don’t know it and work well in it.”

Cave also provided excellent examples of student research completed this year.

Three current President’s Scholars, Leah Anderson ’09, Natalie Durgin ’09 and Ian Jimenez ’11, then took the podium to talk about how the President’s Scholars Program has helped them achieve their academic and personal goals.

The evening also featured a keynote address by Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, who spoke about his research on the dynamics and processes of the health of the Latino population.

Honored sponsors included Accenture, Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Boeing, Martin Caniff ’74, Google, Medtronic MiniMed, The Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, Anna Prestezog ’97 and Robert Prestezog ’97, Qualcomm, Raytheon, Southern California Edison and Dave Wilbur ’68.

For more information on the President’s Scholars Program, contact Danyel Barnard, associate director of corporate and foundation relations, at danyel_barnard@hmc.edu or (909) 607-6726.