Woodbury Faculty Member Pays it Forward
On a recent Saturday morning, Dr. Alice Shiotsugu, assistant professor of Accounting, was on campus at Woodbury attending an MBA meeting when she came across a group gathered in the Bowman Conference Room.
“They greeted me with so much love and hospitality,” she recalls. “I asked if they were there for the MBA meeting. They explained their purpose: ‘to help students in need.’”
On hand at this chance encounter was Linda Grant Jones, a 1967 graduate of Villa Cabrini Academy (VCA), which was housed on the Glenoaks campus until 1970. Jones is the driving force behind the Villa Cabrini Academy Scholarship Fund, established earlier this year by VCA alumni in support of Woodbury students. Her $30,000 donation seeded the fund, which will become endowed when it reaches $50,000.
Upon learning that the fundraising effort still had some $17,000 to go, Dr. Shiotsugu promptly wrote a check for $1,000. Having been helped by faculty and staff while a student at Woodbury, when the university was still located on Wilshire Blvd., in downtown Los Angeles. Dr. Shiotsugu says she wanted to pay it forward.
“I know many students are unable to buy food, books or computers, or are outright homeless, but they come to class and put up a brave front in hopes of getting a quality education en route to a good job, to get away from such penury,” she says. “They’re the invisible poor–it breaks my heart, and this should not happen in the U.S.” she said.
“If anyone in the Woodbury community has a few extra cents, please consider dropping them in the ‘Villa Cabrini Academy Scholarship’ coffers, so we can help as many needy students as possible.”