Learn 4 Life Charter School and Choice in Learning National Foundation recently donated $108,000 to the Fresno State Alumni Association (FSAA) to help fund a new scholarship program.

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The gift is the largest donation given to an alumni association scholarship fund in the 23-campus California State University system and will benefit the soon-to-be-established Dante Simi Scholarship Fund. 

Representatives from the education groups presented the gift to FSAA officials during a private reception on March 3. 

The scholarship fund is named after Dante Simi, a career business executive who graduated from Fresno State in 1963 with a degree in social science and founded the Learn 4 Life Charter School. The organization seeks to identify and address high school dropout issues. 

The charter school foundation made the gift in Simi’s honor, with $100,000 benefiting the endowment fund for future scholarships, and the remaining $8,000 supporting eight $1,000 scholarships—four in 2016-17 and four in 2017-18. 

The previous largest gift to a CSU alumni association also involved Fresno State and was a $100,000 bequest from William Beck to the FSAA’s Bulldog Pride Fund in 2008. 

The FSAA leads all 23 CSU alumni associations in annual student scholarship giving, with more than $146,000 in awards for the 2015-16 academic year.