When Katie Fleischer earned her women and gender studies degree from Smith College last spring, her graduation ceremony represented a notable achievement for herself and her parents, Amy and Paul.

“We were lucky enough to be able to put our daughter through school,” said Amy S. Fleischer, dean of the College of Engineering.

Knowing that their daughter had the privilege to attend college without worrying about finances, the Fleischers wanted
to provide the same opportunity for others.

“We wanted to provide that opportunity for somebody else,” Amy said. “My daughter got a chance. And we want somebody else to have a chance, too.”

Amy and Paul created the Fleischer Family Scholarship to support Cal Poly Scholars, which aims to support high-achieving students with financial needs. Launched by the College of Engineering with 14 students in 2012, the program is now universitywide with 900 students.

Cal Poly Scholars receive financial aid to pay for Cal Poly campus fees, a technology stipend, and various means of support through advising, peer mentoring, special campus services and a residential experience that are all designed to ensure personal and academic success. So far, retention and graduation rates of Cal Poly Scholars have met or exceeded those of the general student population at Cal Poly.

Cal Poly will match Cal Poly Scholars gifts up to $2,500. Eventually, the university hopes to have as many as 10,000 Cal Poly Scholars.

We asked Fleischer about the family’s commitment to the program.

Why did you decide to support Cal Poly Scholars?

Cal Poly Scholars is such an important program for the university and the college. And it’s an easy way to make a big difference in somebody’s life. So when our daughter graduated college last spring, we re-evaluated what our priorities were. We’re used to paying college tuition, now we’ll keep going.

How does this further the university’s diversity and inclusion goals?

We’re really targeting the scholarship toward people who wouldn’t be able to afford this on their own. It’s students with high needs, and that often correlates with some of our diversity goals. At Cal Poly Scholars, the diversity within that cohort is so much more.

Why is creating a sense of community so important?

When you’re coming in someplace, and you’re the first in your family to attend college, it feels like everybody else knows what’s going on and you don’t. Having another group of students that are going through the same experience you are is going to help. It’s also important knowing that people believe in you and that you belong here. It lets them know somebody is investing in you specifically, and we think you can do this, and we want you to be here.

Beyond Cal Poly, why is it important to have diversity?

Cal Poly is a state school, and we should represent the demographics of the state that we represent. So bringing up the diversity to match the state is part of our mission – that’s what we need to do. We need to be serving the population of California, and the population of California is diverse.

And, building off of that, we promote the diversity of thought, which means the more perspectives you have, the better your results will be.

What’s the negative if we don’t have diversity?

If we don’t have diversification, we’re not going to be setting up our university for success. It’s a multinational world. California’s a majority-minority state, and if our students don’t reflect that reality, we are not serving our mission as a state school.

How will we gauge the success of the program?

We’re viewing success based on retention, increasing retention, increased graduation rates, placement rates and the ability to attract more students to Cal Poly. I think there’s a lot of ways to look at the metrics of the program, but to me it’s all about student success.

How it this going to help them in their careers?

There’s a lot of industry support. I think you just know people are standing behind you. And having that confidence going into your career makes a big difference.

Are alumni and donors excited about this?

Everybody is really excited about the program. It’s just a great way to make an impact with a comparatively small investment. And you can see that direct impact immediately: Somebody is now here that wasn’t here before.