ASU's West campus is growing not only in size and number of students, but also in the amount of scholarships being awarded.
West campus gave out about $700,000 in scholarships to its students this academic year, breaking the campus's previous scholarship record, according to Stephen Des Georges, a spokesman for ASU West.
Individual scholarship amounts from the other three ASU campuses were unavailable, said Mistalene Calleroz, the dean of student affairs. However, the combined total of scholarship money awarded for the Tempe, Downtown and Polytechnic campuses in 2007 was about $150 million, according to a financial report from the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing body of the state's universities.
Out of the four colleges at West campus, the College of Teacher Education and Leadership received the most awards to its students, totaling $196,439.
Mari Koerner, dean of the College of Teacher Education and Leadership, said she believes people tend to become donors for scholarships because they want to positively influence students.
"[The donors] know that putting one teacher through college will, over that teacher's lifetime, impact thousands of children," she said. "They can see the direct impact of the money they're investing, and they understand the legacy that they're leaving."
Residents of the West Valley are very committed to ASU's West campus since most of them were living near the campus when it opened, and some of the donors attended the school themselves, she added.
The donors who live nearby will be able to see the effect of their scholarships more readily than if they were to donate to the other ASU campuses, she said.
One donor, Donald Jarnagin, gave $25,000 to the West campus last year.
"My feeling is you need to help those who need the help," he said.
Jarnagin, a clinical assistant professor in the Optometry Clinic at Midwestern University, had to travel across the Valley from his hometown of Peoria to attend ASU's Tempe campus when he went to college.
He was glad to see the West campus open, he said, and his loyalty to the West Valley is what motivated him to donate to the West campus, along with the fact that his son also recently graduated from the campus.
"I've been lucky be able to help out," he added.
In the past, his family also contributed money to donate a classroom at West campus in the name of his father, who Jarnagin said valued education above everything else.
Jarnagin said he thinks education is important, but also very expensive, which is why he was happy to help students.
"Our donors are not necessarily wealthy people, and many are teachers," Koerner added. "They want to support students who want to become teachers.
"They realize that some of these students might be first-generation students and would need financial assistance."
Reach the reporter at: charlsy.panzino@asu.edu.
