SCHOLARSHIPS
Sandy Timmons '81 and
Rick Sandstrom '72, MS '76, PhD '79
"The scholarship was our saving grace," said Lopez, who had once carried the
burden of crushing her parents with college debt. The daughter of immigrants
who fled violence and economic instability is now a mechanical-engineering
major on track to graduate from UC San Diego in 2021, debt free.
For many students like Lopez, scholarship support changes everything. It
changed everything for alumna Sandy Timmons '81 who thought that her
academic dreams had dissolved when her father lost his job. Her future
husband, Rick Sandstrom '72, MS '76, PhD '79, too, would not have been able
to complete his graduate degrees without financial assistance.
Taking to heart the phrase "ability is random — access is not," Timmons and
Sandstrom founded the Chancellor's Associates Endowment Challenge as a
means to provide and encourage long-range support for students in financial
need through the Chancellor's Associates Scholarship Program (CASP). The
undergraduate program recognizes high-achieving students from California
and fully engages awardees in academics, student life, and the university
experience through a series of activities. Timmons and Sandstrom's gift offers a
total of $1 million in matching funds to increase the impact of newly established
Broaden access and cultivate success
Leslie Lopez '21 and her parents were on the verge of tears
when they found out that she had received the Chancellor's
Associates Scholarship.
C H A N C E L LO R'S A S S O C I AT E S E N D OWM E N T C H A L L E N G E
