The University’s largest-ever gift will fund a
300,000-square-foot, state-of-the art-facility for transformational
STEM education
The patriarch and matriarch of one of Silicon Valley’s most
prominent families in real-estate development and philanthropy,
John A., ’60, and Susan Sobrato, have made a gift of $100 million
to Santa Clara University to help create the Sobrato Campus for
Discovery and Innovation. This “campus within a campus” will be
designed to promote cross-disciplinary exploration to enhance
undergraduate student learning and discovery across science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
The gift is the largest in Santa Clara’s 166-year history and
ranks as the second-largest gift ever to a Catholic university. It
will accelerate Santa Clara University’s vision and goals for STEM
education, which emphasize developing technical expertise, an
entrepreneurial mindset, ethical reasoning, and collaborative
approaches to tackling society’s most urgent challenges.
“Sue and I and our son John Michael have agreed to leave 100
percent of our wealth to the Sobrato Family Foundation to invest in
organizations that improve the lives of the less fortunate in the
greater Silicon Valley community and to institutions like Santa
Clara University, which have helped make the Sobrato Organization
the success that it is,” said John A. Sobrato.
“This gift is the largest in our family’s history. We are
especially pleased to support the University’s new strategic vision
and the transformational STEM initiative at its core. The
state-of-the-art, 300,000-square-foot, undergraduate-focused
complex will allow for the integration of the various engineering
departments with the natural science disciplines of the College of
Arts and Sciences to address—with Jesuit values—some of the world’s
most pressing problems.”
The Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation will create
opportunities for students to engage in innovative, high-impact,
team-based projects. When complete, the Sobrato Campus will promote
cross-disciplinary undergraduate teaching, research, and
initiatives in areas such as neuroscience, bioengineering,
sustainability, and environmental science.
The new facility is being designed by Portland-based Zimmer
Gunsul Frasca Architects—Architect Magazine’s Firm of the Year and
top firm for sustainability in 2016—in partnership with lab-design
experts Research Facilities Design, of San Diego. The Sobrato
Campus will offer flexible laboratory, classroom, and student
project spaces, visually connected by transparent glass walls.
Integrated with Santa Clara’s Frugal Innovation Hub and Miller
Center for Social Entrepreneurship, the Sobrato Campus will enable
more interaction between SCU’s science and engineering resources
and its signature, Jesuit-mission-based programs focused on meeting
the needs of the global poor.
“We are honored and blessed by John and Susan Sobrato’s
unwavering support for Santa Clara University for the past six
decades,” said Michael Engh, S.J., president of Santa Clara
University. “This historic gift will accelerate our vision of
leveraging our academic excellence, Jesuit values, and Silicon
Valley relationships to forge imaginative solutions to the urgent
challenges we face.”
More about the gift, including a video featuring an interview
with the Sobratos, can be found at www.scu.edu/STEM.
John A. Sobrato ’60, is a longtime member of Santa Clara
University’s Board of Trustees and founder of The Sobrato
Organization (TSO) of Cupertino, California, one of the largest
commercial development firms in Silicon Valley. In 1996, the couple
and their three children launched the Sobrato Family
Foundation.
The Sobratos have been married for 56 years, during which time
Mrs. Sobrato has been an active partner supporting the family’s
business and philanthropic pursuits. Mrs. Sobrato prioritized
raising her three children and giving back to the family’s
community through financial resources and personal time
commitments. In addition to their three children—John Michael ‘83,
Lisa Sobrato Sonsini, and Sheri Sobrato Brisson M.A. ‘94—the pair
has five grandsons and two granddaughters.
The Sobratos have been prominent philanthropists in Silicon
Valley for decades, and particularly generous to SCU. They donated
$20 million to build the University’s Harrington Learning Commons,
Sobrato Technology Center, and Orradre Library, completed in 2008.
Gifts from the Sobrato family have also supported other major
capital projects on campus, including the Sobrato Residential
Learning Community, Abby Sobrato Mall, and other campus buildings.
Elsewhere in Silicon Valley, capital gifts from the Sobrato family
have included $20 million to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital,
$10 million to Bellarmine College Preparatory high school, and $5
million each to Valley Medical Center and National Hispanic
University. A $1.25 million gift in 2012 helped build the Cristo
Rey San Jose Jesuit High School.
John A. Sobrato is proud to trace his professional success back
to his days studying business at Santa Clara University. While a
student, Sobrato arranged his class schedule so he could start
selling Eichler houses in Palo Alto three days a week. By the age
of 22, he founded Midtown Realty and was the youngest member of the
Million Dollar Club of the Palo Alto Real Estate Board. In 1972, he
sold Midtown Realty to focus exclusively on high-tech commercial
properties, and went on to develop the iconic Apple headquarters in
Cupertino and campuses for Siebel, Nvidia, Netflix, EMC, VeriSign,
and Yahoo! Over the years, TSO developed more than 15 million
square feet of office and R&D properties, and currently owns 92
commercial buildings in the Valley totaling nearly 8 million square
feet, and 29 apartment communities along the West Coast.
Sobrato serves as board chair of both the family firm and the
Sobrato Family Foundation (SFF), whose robust community impact
platform focuses on 21st century education and career pathways,
provides millions each year in community-mainstay general operating
support, and runs three Sobrato Centers for Nonprofits, which
provide 333,000 square feet of rent-free office space to 72
organizations and high-quality conference space to all Bay Area
nonprofits. SFF's signature program is the Sobrato Early Academic
Language Program [SEAL]—an innovative, comprehensive model of
intensive, enriched language and literacy education from preschool
through grade 3, currently in 87 schools in 16 California
districts, and impacting tens of thousands of English learners.
Since 1996, the Sobrato Family has donated nearly $375 million in
cash and real estate to educational, health, human services, and
other charities.
Mr. Sobrato was recognized for his philanthropy in 2012 with the
Joint Venture Silicon Valley, David Packard Award for Civic
Entrepreneurship, and the couple in 2015 received the Silicon
Valley Leadership Group’s Spirit of Silicon Valley – Lifetime
Achievement Award.
In addition to Santa Clara University, Mr. Sobrato serves on the
boards of
- NHU Foundation and Latino College
Preparatory Academy (Vice Chair)
- Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School
(Co-chair)
- Bay Area Council (Santa Clara County
Director)
- Bellarmine College Preparatory (Regent
Emeritus)
- Parents Helping Parents (Member)
- Ravenswood Family Health Center
(Member)
- Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
Foundation (Director Emeritus)
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation
(Real Estate Trust Co-Chair)
- Joint Venture Silicon Valley
(Member)
About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic
university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s
Silicon Valley, offers its more than 9,000 students rigorous
undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and
engineering; master’s degrees in business, education, counseling
psychology, pastoral ministry, and theology; and law degrees and
engineering doctoral degrees. Distinguished nationally by one of
the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities,
California’s oldest operating higher-education institution
demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice.
For more information, see www.scu.edu.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170122005083/en/
SCUDeepa Arora, 408-554-5125Communications
Directordarora@scu.edu