Michael Sullivan
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Sullivan Scholarships Give Promise of Educational Opportunity
By Kaitlin Solimine
July 2004
For those that knew Michael Sullivan, it seems only fitting that the
$1.2 million scholarship fund he bequeathed to the USC College School
of International Relations (SIR) upon his death in 2000 was provided to
further the education of USC College graduates lacking the financial
means to pursue graduate degrees.
Sullivan, who received a bachelor’s degree from SIR in 1957, was a true
believer in educational opportunity for all. As a high school college
counselor in the farming community of Watsonville, Sullivan spent
nearly 30 years assisting hundreds of underprivileged minority
students, most of whose parents were poor immigrants, attend some of
the most prestigious colleges and universities in the nation.
“Michael strongly believed that instead of taking three generations to
reach the upper echelons of society, bright, poor, minority students
could do it in one generation—their own,” says John Sargent, Sullivan’s
friend and executor and successor trustee of his estate.
The USC College Michael Sullivan scholarships, each amounting to
$12,000 per student, were first awarded in 2003. The bequest was
motivated by Sullivan’s desire to ease the burden of educational loans
that often keep qualified students from continuing on to postgraduate
studies—he believed that the possession of a postgraduate degree offers
the best opportunity for higher advancement.
“The scholarships help underrepresented students break through the
glass ceiling of academic preparation that leads to positions of power
and influence and the integration of the poor and minorities into the
mainstream of American society,” says Sargent.
This year, Sullivan scholarships were awarded to international
relations students Gordon Douglas, Trisha Lucero and Ksenija Vidulic,
who all attended the London School of Economics, and Suzanne Mayo, who
is attending the University of Hawaii.
“Michael Sullivan’s pursuit was and still is full of compassion for
others,” says Mayo. “He had an understanding of what it felt like to
yearn for a dream to come true, but not have the opportunity to try and
achieve it. He knew that if he could offer students that opportunity,
then they could do what they were really meant to do.”
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