Students pose for a photo at Dougherty Family College. DFC is a two-year university designed to prepare students who aspire for a four-year college. Photo courtesy of Dougherty Family College.
St. Thomas’ Dougherty Family College received a $6.5 million donation in September from Richard Sterbens and Marty Ryan to help create an endowment to support graduates of the college.
The donation will provide those who wish to complete their bachelor’s degree at St. Thomas with a full-tuition scholarship.
“I am very grateful that people do believe in the students here enough to invest in us,” DFC sophomore Xavier Abdullahi said. “It brings us a lot of hope.”
Ryan barely graduated from high school and Sterbens never did. Despite their background, the two established Dalson Foods, a global meat-trading business, and Richmar Industries. In addition, they owned a variety of other businesses and real estate developments.
Before their deaths in 2010 and 2016, the couple arranged for their fortunes to be donated to organizations that provided opportunities for people to access high quality educational pathways. Though Ryan and Sterbens did not have a direct connection to St. Thomas; Bill Degnan, their financial adviser and trustee, was a former Tommie, thus creating the Martin Ryan and Richard Sterbenz Scholarship.
“I think that it is really sweet that these two people wanted to support other young people who might need help like they did,” DFC Dean and Frey Chair Alvin Abraham said. “$6.5 million is huge. It’s exceptional. It’s unusual and doesn’t happen that often at all.”
The two-year university is specially designed for students who aspire to a four-year college degree. The college focuses on addressing the disparity of students growing up in high-income and low-income communities to accessing college, as well as creating a business community to solve the workforce gap.
By focusing on liberal arts studies like math, reading and writing, students can focus on rebuilding fundamental skills needed for a bachelor’s degree and beyond.
“I want to be able to see more students following my same path,” sophomore Kelly Ordonez-Saybe said. “I want to see students not have to have the setback of being a first generation student and use Dougherty as a passport to a four-year education.”
Abraham said that the college provides access to students who may not be fully academically prepared, lack the support that is necessary to be successful or may face cost barriers.
“Dougherty Family College gave me the perfect opportunity to get experience and be able to be successful because I had the right environment,” Abdullahi said. “The students work together to build a community.”
Ava Diaz can be reached at diaz7981@stthomas.edu