"I guess in the U.S., very few people expected girls to go into engineering at that time," recalls Greenie Van Buren '71, '78 M.S. of how classmates seemed surprised that she wanted to be an engineer.
Greenie, who traveled by herself from Hong Kong to attend Santa Clara, was the only woman to earn an engineering degree in her graduating class. "I never went out with the boys in my class—I think they all looked at me as competition," she says.
That is, until her sophomore year when she met Donald Van Buren '70.
"She was always finding excuses to walk past me in the library," Don jokes.
After fulfilling his ROTC commitments at Fort Benning, Georgia, Don came back to California to work as a mechanical engineer, primarily for the Bay Area Quality Management District. Greenie, meanwhile, was hired by Intel, where employees talked of "changing the world" with technology.
"It really excited me," she says. "And I'm not sure I would've felt prepared without having come to Santa Clara. It was just such a supportive, welcoming atmosphere that made me feel like I could stay in the U.S. and do great things."
Now retired, the couple is gifting part of their IRAs' required minimum distributions to Santa Clara's new Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation and establishing scholarship funds for engineering students through the remainder beneficiary.
"I feel I got really lucky coming here," Greenie says. "Now, I want to help someone else."
Like Greenie and Don, you can help future Santa Clara students with a gift from your estate plan. Contact the Office of Planned Giving at 408-554-2108 or giftplanning@scu.edu to learn about your options or to discuss how your gift can make a meaningful difference.