Abraxis BioScience Inc. Founder Patrick Soon-Shiong and Wife, Michele B. Chan, Donate $2 Million to Marymount High School in One of Largest Gifts to School
LOS ANGELES-(Business Wire)-September 10, 2009 - In one of the largest individual gifts ever given to Marymount High School, Abraxis BioScience Inc. founder Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and his wife, Michele B. Chan, have donated $2 million to bolster technology and support internships for students at the all-girls school.
“We are so grateful and honored to have received this extraordinary gift from the Chan Soon-Shiong family,” said Head of School Jacqueline Landry. “I join my predecessor, Dr. Mary Ellen Gozdecki, in thanking Patrick and Michele for their vision and commitment. Their gift will have an immediate impact on the lives of our students and faculty, and will help to ensure the legacy of our founding Sisters.”
Dr. Soon-Shiong and Mrs. Chan Soon-Shiong said the gift from their family foundation, The Chan Soon-Shiong Foundation, reflects their belief in the school’s mission to educate young women to be socially and environmentally responsible leaders.
“Nothing is more important to the future of our country than our children,” Dr. Soon-Shiong said. “We are extremely pleased to be able to assist Marymount in its quest to provide the tools that will help their students realize their dreams, and to help this wonderful institution of learning achieve its goals for generations to come.”
Half of the donation will support Marymount’s commitment to its founding congregation, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, in conjunction with the recent agreement transferring title of the school property to Marymount High School, Los Angeles.
The remaining funds will support several new initiatives, including a 21st Century learning environment that provides enhanced opportunities for collaborative learning and integration of advanced technology. Over the summer, classrooms were furnished with new desks, chairs, wall-talker boards and other features to support the one-to-one laptop program being launched this fall. Marymount High School is the first all-girls independent high school in California to initiate a one-to-one laptop program, in which every student has her own laptop computer. The gift will also support self-sustaining, clean energy producing SKYShades Solarbrellas to power the laptops outdoors, a first for a California School. The gift will also provide funds to establish a summer internship program for Marymount students at colleges, universities and other institutions throughout Southern California. Specifically, the Chan Soon-Shiong Scholar program will be established to mentor Marymount students in business, arts and science at such institutions of higher learning as the Center for Health Informatics at USC, the John Wayne Cancer Research Institute at St John’s, the Anderson School of Management and the California Nanosystems Institute at UCLA.
“Dr. Soon-Shiong’s generous and visionary gift will enable exciting collaborative opportunities between business-minded Marymount students and the intellectual resources and students of the UCLA Anderson School,” said Dr Judy Olian, Dean of the Anderson School of Management.
Finally, in keeping with the mission of the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation to fund research and erase disparities in access to health care and education, a portion of the gift will provide financial assistance to fund two Chan Soon-Shiong Scholarships for students whose families would otherwise have not been able to afford a Marymount education.
Founded in 1923 by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, Marymount High School is an independent, Catholic college preparatory school for girls in grades 9 through 12 that accepts students of all faiths. The school provides purposeful leadership training, a rigorous academic program, and extensive co-curricular opportunities that challenge the mind and inspire personal growth and creativity. Marymount students are diverse in ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, and come from 71 zip codes in the greater Los Angeles area. Marymount graduates are admitted to some of the most selective academic institutions in the world, with over 3,600 alumnae living throughout the United States and abroad.
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