First and Focused - College of Saint Benedict & Saint John's University

Frey Foundation Makes Leadership Gift to Launch First Gen
Scholarships are essential to make Saint John's accessible
to first-generation students. Jim Frey ’78, immediate past
Chair of the Board of Regents, agrees: The Frey Foundation
made a $2.5 million challenge grant to SJU’s First Gen Scholarship
Program.
Jim Frey knows a great deal about accessibility—of a different
kind. He was injured in high school and became wheelchairbound.
In a Saint John's Magazine interview in 2007, he recalled
that SJU was not wheelchair-accessible when he visited as a
prospective Johnnie.
Don LeMay, OSB, director of admission at the time, accompanied
Frey on his tour of campus. He said he wanted to know
how he could make the campus more hospitable to students
with disabilities, whether or not Frey chose SJU. As they toured,
Fr. Don noted any changes needed, such as curb cuts, to make
the campus more accessible. Frey did choose SJU, and when he
arrived for school, the changes had been made.
Frey remembers this as an excellent example of Benedictine
hospitality. “Saint John’s decided ‘Well, we’ll make it work because
we should, not because we have to.’”
The late Dietrich Reinhart, OSB, president emeritus, was the first
to broach the idea of a first-generation scholarship program with
Frey. Br. Dietrich recognized that enrollment pressures made it
important to recruit first-generation students, but he also felt that it
was simply the right thing to do because SJU had a special connection
to first-generation students. Saint John's was founded to
provide an education to the children of German immigrants in the
area, all of whom were first-generation college students.
Almost twice as many new first-generation students as other
students say they have “major” concerns about their ability to
pay for their education. And for good reason. The average firstgeneration
student in the fall of 2009 could afford to pay less
than 15 percent of the total cost of a college education.
“When Br. Dietrich and I started talking about the First Gen
initiative, my immediate reaction was, ‘This is a great idea,'"
says Frey. “The time was ripe to establish a leadership gift.
Looking at the demographics of the school, it was very appealing.
As a foundation, this was a pretty easy decision. It’s
the best use of money to address the long-term health of Saint
John’s and to do the right thing of creating opportunity for firstgeneration
students.
"We began to think about how to leverage the gift and decided
that it would be best for it to be a match. The double-match
strategy that Saint John’s has conceived provides significant
leverage.
"Our family foundation is delighted to be able to make this
leadership gift, and we are certain that others will join in to create
a large-enough fund to make an education at SJU a reality
for a good number of first-generation students."
The Frey
Foundation made
a leadership gift to
support the First Gen
initiative at Saint John’s.
Pictured here with Jim
Frey ’78 are his wife,
Mary White Frey, CSB ’80,
and parents, gene and
Mary Frey.