On Oct. 18, 2017, the Stevens community received an email from President Farvardin announcing a $15 million gift from the A. James and Alice B. Clark Foundation to establish the Clark Scholars Program. The President stated that this is “the largest endowed scholarship gift in the University’s history” and that “it will provide financial support and enhanced learning opportunities for exceptional undergraduate students who are underrepresented in engineering and computer science/cybersecurity, including first generation college students.”
Prior to becoming Stevens’s seventh president, Dr. Farvardin worked for 27 years at the University of Maryland, where Mr. Clark graduated from in 1950 and later on established a $30 million scholarship program in 2005. Mr. Clark then gifted $2 million to the Stevens endowment in 2011 following Dr. Farvardin’s appointment, thus establishing the Nariman Farvardin Endowed Chair in Civil Engineering.
Mr. Clark’s generosity stems from his own humble beginnings, as his college education was made possible by a state scholarship. This lead to him acquiring a degree in civil engineering and start his successful career. Clark was hired fresh out of college by the George Hyman Construction Company, a small, local contracting business, where he climbed the career ladder from field engineer to general manager to president to chief executive officer. Over 60 years, Clark’s leadership and vision transformed the small company into one of the largest construction companies in the nation, which is now known as Clark Construction.
Clark believed that giving back to his community and investing in the future generation is important, which is why his company has invested millions of dollars into creating scholarships for numerous prospective engineering students. Universities that have the Clark Scholars Program include The George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, Virginia Tech, and now, Stevens Institute of Technology.
At Stevens, the Clark Scholars Program seeks to combine engineering, computer science, or cybersecurity with business, leadership, and community service. Students qualified for the program will be selected annually from incoming undergraduate applicants based on financial need, academic achievement, community involvement, and an interest in the aforementioned fields. The Clark Scholars’ curriculum will include challenging engineering, computer science, or cybersecurity courses with the addition of at least two business or finance courses, participation in community and service-based learning projects, enrichment seminars, mentorship opportunities, and events with professionals in the field.
President Farvardin believes that “through the Clark Scholars Program at Stevens, we will create an environment that we hope will produce many more graduates who will make their mark on the world and who possess the rare combination of attributes that Mr. Clark embodied: remarkable leadership skills, unquestionable integrity, business acumen, engineering prowess, and a selfless dedication to humanitarianism.”
The first set of Clark Scholars, 10 students, will enroll at Stevens in Fall 2018, and steadily the program will expand to support 40 Scholars.
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