MPC Alum leaves $1 million for future science scholarships.

It’s not everyday a handwritten check for $1 million crosses the desk of Beccie Michael, vice president of advancement for Monterey College.

In fact, Michael said it was the first time she ever remembers the MPC Foundation receiving a check like that, she told the MPC Board of Trustees on Nov. 28.

“Normally they’re printed. It was almost unreal,” she said.

The check was from the estate of an alumna named Alexandra Page Clark who passed away in August 2017 at the age of 55 after a battle with brain cancer.

It turns out Clark graduated from MPC with a degree in horticulture and went on to become a research scientist. In her bequest she asked that the money be used to create an endowment to provide scholarships for MPC students earning science degrees.

“You never know when one of our amazing alumni are going to have an impact. We are just blown away and very very excited,” Michael said.

When Clark attended MPC is still being researched, since it was before the college’s records were computerized. The foundation believes she transferred from MPC to UC Berkeley, where she graduated with a bachelor’s of science in 1993.

Clark’s curriculum vitae posted online does not include a date for her MPC degree. Besides MPC and UC Berkeley, it lists an undated culinary degree from San Francisco City College and a master’s of science from New York University earned in 1996.

Clark worked for NYU as an assistant research scientist from 1996 to 2001, working in the biology department and the Lab of Plant Molecular Biology.

“Alex was a remarkable person – she had a deep, deep intellect and curiosity about science and how things worked,” her mentor Gloria Corruzi wrote in a tribute after Clark’s death. “She was also immensely warm and generous of spirit. She was always willing to help others and put the needs of her family and close friends ahead of herself.”

Clark was born in San Francisco, and according to her obituary she grew up there and in Brussels, Belgium. She had a connection to the Monterey Peninsula through a sister, Pam Clark, in Carmel.

“We are so grateful to Ms. Clark for leaving such an incredible legacy gift to the MPC Foundation,” Hansen Reed, the foundation’s board president, said in a press release dated Nov. 28. “We look forward to honoring her memory by awarding scholarships to deserving MPC students beginning in Spring 2019.”

Called the Oscar Dunn and Alexandra Page Clark Endowment—named for Clark and her husband—it will provide approximately $40,000 in scholarships every year in perpetuity. The foundation’s Scholarship Advisory Group will screen applications and recommend awards.

“Ms. Clark’s intent is to support individuals who have financial need, but who may normally be overlooked for scholarship awards,” Michael said in the press release. “She made it clear that academic standing was not as important as motivation, interest and commitment to the science discipline. As one of our science instructors pointed out, this will be a game changer for MPC students.”