$30 Million Clark Endowment Revolutionizes Undergraduate Education at the Clark School

"The new Clark Scholarship Endowment will have an even greater impact, greatly enhancing the quality of our students and our contributions to the field of engineering."

Nariman Farvardin, Dean, A. James Clark School of Engineering

On February 3, 2005 , a revolution was launched at the A. James Clark School of Engineering-a revolution that from this day will profoundly benefit our students, the school and the profession of engineering in the United States .

In the Maryland State House in Annapolis, site of important events in the Revolutionary War, A. James Clark, '50, Chairman and CEO of national construction firm Clark Enterprises and the man for whom the Clark School is named, established a new $30 million A. James Clark Scholarship Endowment to provide financial support for Clark School undergraduate engineering students.

The endowment will provide Clark School students specific scholarships based on merit, need and diversity. These scholarships will enormously enhance the academic standing and expand the cultural perspectives of the Clark School student body and thus further enrich the highly regarded undergraduate experience here.

The new endowment is the single largest gift in the school's history-doubling Mr. Clark's 1994 endowment, which had been the largest until now. Like the earlier gift, the new Clark Scholarship Endowment will cause a dramatic shift in the Clark School 's capabilities, strengthening its ability to attract students nationally and help solve the nation's shortage of highly trained engineers.

The new endowment will have a profound impact on undergraduate education at the Clark School :

First, it will support a larger number of scholarships each year than ever before possible, reducing or eliminating financial barriers for many more students.

Second, it will help us target the very best students, offering financial packages to rival those of other leading schools.

Third, it will help us inspire the interest of students who might not otherwise consider engineering at all-students who will bring with them a wide variety of interests and insights that will enliven our courses and projects.

As a result, the endowment will greatly enrich the Clark School undergraduate experience, and help develop new sources of students to end the nation's shortage of highly trained engineers.

"Ten years ago," noted Dean Nariman Farvardin, "Jim Clark contributed $15 million to the school, and helped enable the remarkable progress we've made since then-moving from 37th to 16th in U.S. News rankings and becoming one of the nation's top engineering research and educational institutions. The new Clark Scholarship Endowment will have an even greater impact, greatly enhancing the quality of our students and our contributions to the field of engineering."

Video of Mr. Clark's speech

Read the endowment press release

Published February 7, 2005

News Story

$30 Million Clark Endowment Revolutionizes Undergraduate Education at the Clark School

"The new Clark Scholarship Endowment will have an even greater impact, greatly enhancing the quality of our students and our contributions to the field of engineering."

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