2022 Donor Impact Report

Growing up in Northern Michigan, Susanna Hayes had no idea that her life’s path would lead to the heart of the Native American experience. After graduating from Loyola University Chicago in 1964, she planned to continue on to graduate school, envisioning a future career in academia. But a life-changing gap year spent volunteering at St. Mary’s Mission on the Colville Reservation near Omak, Wash., would alter her journey, launching Hayes on a career path that would end 49 years later where it began, on the Colville Reservation, and inspire her generous gift to Seattle University’s Indigenous Peoples Institute. 

Seattle University faculty are known for connecting with and inspiring their students to be their best selves. Iram Jafry, ’17 MBA, was deeply moved by the kindness of her accounting professor, Bruce Koch, PhD, and determined to honor his legacy. She connected with Development Officer Wendy Kelley, who guided her in raising awareness among Jafry’s fellow alumni and faculty members. All were happy to support a scholarship endowment honoring this beloved professor. With their help, Jafry succeeded in raising the $50,000 minimum requirement for scholarship distribution to the delighted surprise of Dr. Koch. The first Koch’s Rising Star Endowed Scholarship was awarded this fall.

Seattle structural, civic and seismic engineering firm Coughlin Porter Lundeen has a longstanding relationship with Seattle University. Several SU alumni serve on the firm’s leadership team. Recently, the firm decided to engage with the university in a new way when it became clear that few students from Seattle’s BIPOC community (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) were coming through their recruiting programs. To raise awareness of civil engineering as a career path and provide access to an SU education, our alumni drove an effort to establish the Coughlin Porter Lundeen Endowed Scholarship in Civil Engineering.

When stay-at-home orders during the early days of the pandemic exacerbated the rates of domestic violence across the world, Professor Deirdre Bowen, her family law students and alumni sprang into action by launching a “pop-up” clinic dedicated to assisting survivors of domestic violence file legal protection order petitions here in King County. This vital service to the community would eventually lead to a generous $5 million gift from the Moccasin Lake Foundation and launch a new multidisciplinary Family Law Center to train more law students to become domestic violence advocates and family law practitioners and to help underserved survivors across Washington State. 

Stephen Growdon,’03, wanted to give back to the Seattle University graduate program that spring-boarded him to a fulfilling second career. A successful businessman with an MBA from Dartmouth, Growdon graduated from SU’s master in teaching (MIT) program with an endorsement in secondary education and became a high school social studies teacher. Recalling the student teaching experience as a financially difficult time when students work unpaid in a local school for one quarter while struggling to pay full tuition, he established the Growdon Family Endowed Scholarship in Secondary Education to assist students in the MIT program and doubled his investment with a match from an anonymous bequest.

The late Dean Emerita Eileen Ridgway, PhD, RN, from the College of Nursing, was a leader and advocate for equity in health care. For the past 25 years, SU’s Ridgway Scholars have been caring for the health of underserved populations through hands-on, community-based research. Learn how three 2022 scholarship recipients are continuing Dr. Ridgway’s legacy of advocacy and justice in health care delivery.