Alum bequests $1M for scholarships and capstone projects
Sherry (left) and Don McDonald’s bequest supports biomedical engineering capstone projects and scholarships for hometown students.
Alum Don McDonald and his wife Sherry announced the commitment of $1 million to establish the W. Don and Sherry L. McDonald Endowed Scholarship and the W. Don and Sherry L. McDonald Biomedical Engineering Endowment. The scholarship will assist Mingus Union High School alumni, Arizona high schoolers, and biomedical engineering undergraduates and graduates in pursuing engineering careers. The endowed fund will support BME Interdisciplinary Capstone projects.
McDonald earned his bachelor’s in electrical engineering from U of A in 1965, after which he built a 40-year career working with semiconductor technologies. In 2016, he served as a judge for the Craig M. Berge Design Day. Two years later, he became a capstone team mentor. He plans to continue mentoring and hopes that the endowments will help shape the future.
“I like this mentoring job because I think I have an impact on the students. I think it’s good for them, and frankly it’s good for me,” he said.
“It keeps me focused on what is going on with the newer generation of engineers, and I can help guide those people to be better at establishing their careers and joining the engineering community as a whole.”