Long Beach: Multipurpose Building Will Be Called Shakarian Family Student Success Center

From California State University Long Beach:

March 27, 2020

A new gift to Cal State Long Beach by local resident Louise Shakarian-Ukleja will rename a university building the Shakarian Family Student Success Center in recognition of a wide-ranging investment that will fund a host of programs aimed at student success. The naming was approved by the California State University Board of Trustees at their meeting on March 24.

The programs will be funded through the newly established Shakarian LEADS Endowment (Leading, Educating, and Developing Students) designed to support some of the university’s most at-risk students. It also asks that others become champions and donors for programs that are integral to Cal State Long Beach’s student-centered mission.

Ukleja’s gift also challenges the university to raise an additional $5 million for these programs by 2021.

Among the programs that will benefit from the gift are Bob Murphy Access Center, Mental Health and Wellness, Autism Services-LIFE Project, Basic Needs and Guardian Scholars.

The establishment of the Shakarian LEADS Endowment Fund comes at an unprecedented time as Beach students experience additional pressures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Louise's investment in our students could not come at a more necessary time," said Michele Cesca, vice president for University Relations and Development. "This era of the coronavirus crisis has resulted in a marked increase in emergency and other basic needs of our students as well as concerns about the mental and physical health of our community. I cannot overstate the impact of her leadership and that of other investors in these programs in the lives of our students.”

This press release was produced by California State University Long Beach. The views expressed here are the author’s own.