Pomona College has received a $1 million gift from the Fletcher Jones Foundation to support refugee students.
The grant will establish The Fletcher Jones Foundation Endowed Refugee Scholarship Fund at Pomona College to ensure refugee students are able to lay the educational foundation for a new life. Support from this fund will allow the College to respond nimbly to emerging refugee crises by admitting qualified students whose education has been interrupted by displacement, be it due to a natural disaster or war.
The fund will support the Global Student Haven Initiative at Pomona College with the aim to develop and implement a simplified admissions process for refugee students. Member colleges across the country commit to providing financial aid for admitted refugee students.
“Refugee students are resilient, but they are also young people who have been through a wrenching uprooting,” says Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr. “This gift from Fletcher Jones Foundation will enable these students to continue their undergraduate education at Pomona and start building their future.”
Pomona will admit an inaugural group of refugee students in fall 2023. Without resources of their own to draw on, these students will need wraparound financial, academic and personal support. Pomona College commits to meeting full demonstrated financial need, and the Fletcher Jones Foundation’s gift to Pomona College will help cover students’ costs for laptops, clothing, books and supplies, visa fees, health insurance, mental health counseling and an annual round-trip transportation to their home base.
The refugee student group will leverage Pomona’s significant experience with student cohorts, its location in diverse Southern California, and the supportive College community itself to provide a haven for refugee students where they can regain their footing, complete their studies and build a foundation for a stable life and a rewarding career.
This is the second gift that will benefit refugee students at Pomona College. The College recently announced a $1.2 million gift from Florence and Paul Eckstein ’62 that will help students fleeing crises across the globe by providing them with the opportunity to continue their undergraduate education at Pomona.
About Fletcher Jones Foundation
Fletcher Roseberry Jones rose from humble beginnings to gain fame and fortune as a mathematician, visionary businessman, and larger than life pioneer in the fast moving and unpredictable new field of computer science in the 1950s. After his death in 1972, the original Trustees of the Foundation decided that support of private colleges and universities in California should be their primary emphasis.