Mike Dougherty has done well for himself. His windowed office on the 43rd floor of the Wells Fargo building has a sprawling view of Minneapolis.
His financial services company, Dougherty & Company LLC, has branches in Minnesota and 13 other states.
And on Nov. 17, the University of St. Thomas announced that its Board of Trustees had approved the creation of the Dougherty Family College, a two-year school for underprivileged students. Dougherty provided what he calls a “significant endowment” to fund the school.
Dougherty said he and his wife Kathy “feel very strongly about education,” adding, “we feel it makes a great deal of difference in a person’s life. I’ve had a real spotty education experience — I’m not a good student; I have severe dyslexia — so I treasure the value of an education.”
Orphaned at age 14, Dougherty attended St. Thomas Academy and “hated every minute of it. I had no money, no family to speak of.”
He was then expelled from Creighton University and drafted in the Army, where he learned for the first time of his dyslexia.
While in the Army, he was sent down to Oxford, Mississippi with 800 other members of the military to protect James Meredith, the first black man to attend the University of Mississippi. He was “beat within an inch of my life” during riots opposing Meredith’s enrollment.
Dougherty left the military due to his injuries. He then reapplied to St. Thomas on the G.I. Bill and was accepted.
“They gave me a second chance. So I’ve always been very loyal to St. Thomas,” Dougherty said.
Having suffered through a difficult education himself, Dougherty has since made it his mission to give students today a boost– something he hopes the new two-year college will do.
“The City of Minneapolis and City of St. Paul public school systems, in my view, have failed a lot of their students, and they are doomed to a certain life,” Dougherty said. “This is an opportunity for people that don’t have the resources to improve their life; to be citizens and leaders.”
Dougherty, who sits on the St. Thomas Board of Trustees, said he was impressed by the support system the new college will offer its students, who will have to contribute $1,000 in tuition per year. Students will attend classes in cohorts of 25 students from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Minneapolis campus.
As TommieMedia previously reported, the classes will be focused on hands-on, project-based learning. The goal is prepare underserved students to go on to a bachelor’s degree and a future career while accommodating the students’ financially difficult position.
“I am attracted by the support system of public transportation, two meals, mentors, bus passes, working in downtown offices… I have viewed it very successfully,” Dougherty said.
Reminded of his own rocky education path, Dougherty hopes his endowment will make real change in low-income students’ lives. The potential for the students’ success has made his contribution entirely worth it, Dougherty said.
“It makes me feel happy for the kids. Our hope is that someday,” Dougherty said, “[the students] will become leaders in the community. And North Minneapolis and other parts of this community could sure use some leadership.”
For more coverage on the Dougherty Family College, click here and here.
Sophie Carson can be reached at sophia.carson@stthomas.edu.