The Gloria B. Lee Scholarship Fund is a committee-advised scholarship fund, created with a bequest from the estate of Gloria B. Lee. It assists at-risk students earning college degrees by providing financial and other support needed to help navigate and complete college. The scholarship pays for tuition, fees, and books for students who major in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields or education, and stay on track to earn a bachelors’ degree within six years.
The fund also supports mentoring and coaching from informed and caring adults who can help the students navigate the complexities of financial aid and other private and government assistance, as well as tutoring, academic support skills, job search skills, and more.
About Gloria B. Lee
Gloria Lee graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Computer Engineering and from San Jose State University with a single subject teaching credential in mathematics. Having grown up in poverty in a bad part of town, she was a living testament that a sure ticket out of poverty and oppression was through higher education.
Through Gloria’s experience as a teacher and from her own life experiences, she noticed that students who had a positive support network – whether it was from parents, friends or teachers – were more likely to change their life than those who lacked this support. These students had someone they could go to with their questions or for emotional support when the going got tough. It broke her heart to watch students, with high potential, fail because they didn’t have the support structure of family and friends.
Gloria wanted to give students a hand-up and a way for them to create their own support structure within a cohort of other students coming from similar situations. Intuitively, she believed that through support of mentors, positive role models and supportive peer groups, these students could realize a better life through higher education in a field with a future.
Even though she was terminally ill and would never witness the outcome, Gloria decided she wanted to help students who were economically and socially disadvantaged realize their potential and with help from the Board, founded the Gloria B. Lee Educational Trust, which has evolved to become the Gloria B. Lee Scholarship Fund at PCF.