David Padget (’94 BBA)

Fostering a Broader View

Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said that a mind stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.

That’s just what Fernando and Carla Alvarado hope their recently established study-abroad scholarship will do for the engineering students who receive it.

Fernando, an emeritus professor of electrical and computer engineering, was born in Lima, Peru, and attended school in the United States (MS, Clarkson University; PhD, University of Michigan), as did his grandfather, mother, aunt and uncle. “My family has lived in two worlds,” he said. ““It’s always given us a much broader perspective on what’s happening outside country borders. I find that a lot of the current global problems related to the U.S. maybe exist because there’s a lack of awareness that we live in a bigger world.

“The United States is so big, we almost don’t need to see what is going on elsewhere,” he said. “The first time you go outside, even to Canada or to Mexico, it’s an eye opener for anybody who has never done that.”

Carla (’89 MS Med, ’03 PhD Eng), a research scientist emerita in the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement, College of Engineering, said the opportunities provided through the scholarship will be life changing.

“We have very, very qualified people coming from across the state to attend school here,” she said. “Sometimes, you can become parochial in your own setting and not realize what you are good at and what the rest of the world is good at and how it feels to be an outsider in a different culture.

“This study-abroad experience will give that to people,” she said. “It will make them really appreciate the skills and talents they have at home and also see what’s out there, the opportunity to appreciate that, to see a little bit more and bring those things back home.”

Fernando spoke of their daughters’ living abroad. “It was such a great experience for them,” he said. “I think that in many cases it’s a lack of opportunity to have such experiences that makes the U.S. a little insular. I would like to think that perhaps by encouraging people to go outside their comfort zones and see the big world out there, they will become better citizens, better engineers and better graduates when they return, better people in general.”

Carla underlined that point. “These students will be in the minority wherever they go,” she said. “What does it feel like not to speak the language well or know the local customs, to feel like a visitor wherever you go? That’s something that changes how you see things.”

The Alvarados have made many gifts to support campus activities, especially in the College of Engineering. A big focus has been unrestricted student support, such as through their Fernando & Carla Alvarado ECE Fund to support graduate students in electrical and computer engineering – and this Global Experience Fund.

The size of the scholarship award will perhaps be enough to fund a student’s plane to and from a foreign destination, maybe a flight home during the holidays.

“The key sometimes for these students to get to go abroad to study is having the cash on hand to finance the physical part of the trip,” Carla said. “They can get student loans to pay for tuition, but to actually have the money to buy that plane ticket, to have some startup cash in your pocket, to maybe do a little side travel, maybe a few extra meals, that’s something else.”

Fernando concurred. “We know that a lot of the other money students might get has strings attached to it,” he said. “We are not putting restrictions on it, as long as the main use is for the benefit of the student. If it turns out the best thing is to give them some spending money so they can go to restaurants with new friends, to make the experience better, then so be it.”

Fernando and Carla Alvarado