Donors' Gifts Support Student Success
May 19, 2022 – Two Orange County industry executives and their wives, inspired to contribute to the next generation of engineers, have made generous gifts to support students at the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering.
Patrick and Bonnie Fuscoe have donated $125,000 to establish an endowed scholarship for undergraduate students, and Katherine and John Tracy ’87 (Ph.D.) have given $100,000 to endow an award for graduate students.
The Pat and Bonnie Fuscoe Endowed Scholarship will support an annual award for an undergraduate student majoring in civil and environmental engineering who is a junior or senior with a minimum GPA of 3.5.
Fuscoe, executive chairman and founder of Fuscoe Engineering, hopes the scholarship will ignite curiosity about his company as well as “help and enable recipients to achieve a degree in civil engineering. UCI is our ‘hometown’ university and the source of many of our employees. We need engineers, and you get what you give!”
The Victoria Alegria Tracy Endowed Graduate Student Award, named after John Tracy’s mother, will support new/incoming graduate students. The Tracys hope that it will be granted to students from communities that are historically underrepresented in engineering.
“My wife and I have been interested in supporting underrepresented minority engineering and science students for many years,” said Tracy, who retired from Boeing as chief technology officer and senior vice president of engineering, operations and technology. While earning his doctorate at UCI, he worked long hours as an engineer at Boeing while raising two children with his wife, Katherine.
“There is so much pressure for underrepresented minority students to get a job right after they graduate,” said Tracy. “Having the option to continue through graduate school without stopping is something we hoped to support. I hope these scholarship funds will allow students to focus on achieving their academic potential and earn a graduate degree, thereby serving as a role model for all they come into contact with. Lack of money shouldn't be what keeps a brilliant young person from making their contribution to the world. Supporting these young people financially is a great way to invest in the future.”
– Tonya Becerra
