Philanthropy touched all areas of the University, especially in terms of student scholarships as many grappled with learning virtually at home, with reduced work hours or no jobs at all and, for some, the loss of loved ones.
Emelyn Gonzalez Ceja spent her freshman year at Fresno State taking classes online and helping her dad run his small Fresno pretzel shop on her days off.
The pandemic hit the family business hard, shutting it down for a couple months. Business still has not returned to normal. Ceja didn’t know how her dad, the breadwinner in their eight-person family, could afford to send her and her older sister to college. The sophomore chemistry major also plans to go to graduate school and doesn’t want to add more debt for her or her father.
At the start of the fall semester, Ceja’s worries were eased when she learned she was the recipient of the C. Ray Steele Jr. and Mary Lou Steele Endowed Scholarship. The four-year renewable scholarship covers tuition and fees.
“Having donors like these reassures you that you’re on the right path and doing the right thing,” said Ceja, now a sophomore chemistry major with plans to go into anesthesiology. “It's a good feeling [for them] to believe enough in you to fund your dreams. Some people have dreams they can't achieve because money is an obstacle. Seeing someone grant you this gift is a relieving feeling. Thank you so much for believing in me and my dreams, and believing I can make something for myself.”
Ray Steele, a Fresno State alumnus, past chair of Fresno State’s Foundation Board of Governors, and retired president and publisher of The Fresno Bee, and his wife, who both grew up in Fowler, have long supported students at Fresno State. They continued their commitment to supporting student success with an additional $100,000 gift for the C. Ray Steele Jr. and Mary Lou Steele Endowed Scholarship.
Through generous donors like the Steeles, gifts to the University during the 2020-21 academic year totaled about $28.4 million — $24 million for academics and $4.3 million for athletics.
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