A Georgetown University School of Dentistry graduate and his wife gifted two endowed funds for undergraduate STEM students and medical students with demonstrated financial need, the university announced Feb. 2.
Richard (D ’77) and Angela Calabrese bequeathed the two scholarship funds to support aspiring physicians and scientists, according to the university release. The first fund will provide financial support for undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students in the Community Scholars Program (CSP), which supports first-generation students in their first year, while the second fund will support Georgetown School of Medicine (SOM) students.
The university did not specify the amount of the Calabreses’ donation, though Interim University President Robert M. Groves described it as “significant” in an email to students.
Norman Beauchamp, SOM executive dean, said the scholarship not only provides financial opportunities for low-income medical students but also demonstrates the university’s support for these students.
“This gift for our medical school exemplifies a vote of confidence in the promise and potential of the next generation of healers,” Beauchamp wrote in a Georgetown University Medical Center press release. “Our students often share that receiving a scholarship is not just about access to an education; it is the moment they feel seen, believed in, and called to something larger than themselves. Scholarships offer not only resources, but hope.”
Charlene Brown-McKenzie, executive director of access and success in Georgetown’s Division of Student Affairs, said the gift will allow Georgetown programs such as CSP to help low-income students pursue their degrees and future careers.
“There is good work happening all across the university,” Brown-McKenzie wrote to The Hoya. “Additional funding or gifts provides an opportunity to deepen our goals of academic excellence for students and especially for students who have experienced barriers to access and success in higher education.”
“The Calabrese gift deepens our commitment to the STEM academic community for our Hoyas,” Brown-McKenzie added.
The undergraduate fund is specifically dedicated to the CSP’s Regents STEM Scholar Program (RSSP), which allows students to participate in a summer research program and receive mentorship to address the underrepresentation of low-income, first-generation students in STEM fields.
Grace Molla (CAS ’28) — an undergraduate intern at Georgetown’s Center for Multicultural Equity and Access (CMEA), which oversees CSP — said she was excited to learn about the gift, given her experience working with first-generation students.
“I was very happy because I know that this would support a lot of students who don’t have a lot of resources, who are low-income, who are first-gen, to be able to enter into those spaces, and for a lot of the students that are pursuing STEM careers, I know financial burdens is something that can be a barrier to them,” Molla told The Hoya.
Roan Bedoian (CAS ’28), chair of Georgetown University’s Student Association (GUSA)’s financial accessibility and equity subcommittee, said the endowment will make accessing opportunities within STEM fields more equitable.
“It’s great because it expands those opportunities to work in STEM, to become a doctor or a nurse or physician, to students who may not otherwise be able to afford to do so at Georgetown,” Bedoian told The Hoya. “We all know that we’re really lucky to go to Georgetown, and we should all be grateful for that, so endowments like these expand that opportunity to people who are deserving of them but may not be able to otherwise afford it.”
Molla said the scholarship will particularly alleviate financial concerns for many low-income students.
“In addition to the rigor of the STEM curricula, having to do research and internships, they also have to worry about the financial aspects,” Molla said. “A lot of them work jobs while they’re studying in order to ease the financial burden. So I think practically, obviously, this will reduce a lot of the stress that they’re feeling and allow them to focus more on their education.
Bedoian said the scholarship also comes at an important time in Georgetown’s financial climate, as federal funding cuts have resulted in budget reductions across the university.
“Right now is a really financially strenuous time for the university, as well as all universities across the country, frankly,” Bedoian said. “We know that attacks on higher education by the Trump administration are making universities tighten their budgets and that hits every single part of the university budget, including their financial aid.”
“Endowments like these that are coming from an outside source that are a commitment of ‘x’ amount of dollars, no matter what, are a really big deal because they grant security to that. They grant stability,” Bedoian added.
Molla said the scholarship shows Georgetown’s commitment to ensuring low-income students feel that they have a place in the STEM community.
“The scholarship, I think I see it in terms of as a statement of investing in that student,” Molla said, “It creates a lot of confidence in that student and a sense of security, because it’s somebody being like, ‘You belong in this field that you’ve chosen, you belong to be in STEM, and we’re going to help you be able to achieve that sort of career.’”
