SACRAMENTO STATE
Partner Spotlight : Five Star Bank
“ We ’ re a big believer in what Sac State can do from an education attainment perspective ,” says James Beckwith , president and CEO of Five Star Bank .
For the past several years , Five Star Bank and Sacramento State have enjoyed a unique partnership . The bank is the founding sponsor of the Five Star Bank Business Honors Cohort , which identifies high-achieving juniors and seniors enrolled in Sac State ’ s College of Business Administration and actively engages with them to support their educational and employment goals .
“ We want to identify talent , but we also want these kids to stay home in our market and help develop Sacramento from a business perspective ,” says Beckwith , who ’ s hired two cohort graduates to date and plans to add more to his team . “ The benefit is we get first dibs on some amazing talent . ( Sac State students ) have incredible work ethic .”
Five Star currently employs 33 Sac State alumni — which accounts for nearly 22 % of their workforce — as well as two C-suite executives and three recent graduates from Sac State ’ s Executive MBA program . The bank also hires recent graduates into their Accelerated Leadership Track program .
“ You don ’ t want to take Sac State for granted ,” Beckwith says . “ We appreciate what they ’ re doing with graduates and what they mean to the community .”
You don ’ t need multi-millions to make an impact . It all adds up and we make each dollar go a long way .
Lisa Cardoza Vice President for University Advancement and can be used for a wide range of purposes , to restricted donations dedicated to a specific school or scholarship .
“ We even get stocks and larger pledges that are spread over many years ,” says Lisa Cardoza , vice president for University Advancement . But donations can be as modest as $ 5 contributions made online . “ You don ’ t need multi-millions to make an impact . It all adds up and we make each dollar go a long way .”
One innovative alumnus , Christian Torres , who earned both his BS and MS at Sac State , created a Swarmfunding site to raise scholarship funds dedicated to first-generation graduate students of color in the STEM fields . Donations , he noted on his site , can be doubled with employer matching . After exceeding its initial goal of raising $ 5,000 , it is now well on its way to raising at least twice that amount .
Some philanthropic funds like the President ’ s Circle or Dean ’ s Circle also match donations to specific colleges within the university or use the funds for scholarships or to meet other student needs . On a campus where 76 % of the 29,300 students receive some form of financial aid , scholarships totaled $ 1,925,885 in 2020 . “ Our goal was to double the number of scholarships since 2017 and we ’ ve done that ,” Cardoza says .
But during tough economic times , student needs often go beyond books and classroom supplies . Over the last two years , donations from the President ’ s Circle have provided $ 40,000 to house homeless students and $ 20,000 for a food pantry . “ There is an absolutely increasing need ,” Cardoza says , noting that the food pantry , which serves 17,000 students a year , has been expanded since it opened a few years ago .
Sac State also raised $ 375,000 to be used by students with financial emergencies that could jeopardize their ability to stay in school . Individual grants are capped at $ 2,000 , but the benefits are much greater . One of the 80 students who received a grant last year , for example , needed the money to fix the transmission on his car so he could get to school .
“ People donate small amounts that add up ,” Cardoza says . “ I think it ’ s a great example of how alumni can inspire others to give back , and how a group of people can come together and make a big impact .”
Bill Sessa has been a freelance writer for Comstocks since 2013 . He has received many awards for his writing about the automotive industry and motorsports for national publications including Speed Sport , Autoweek and Performance Racing Industry magazines and for the Napa Valley Register .
36 comstocksmag . com | 2021