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AMCA grad gives back
June 30, 2006
A graduate of Ave Maria College of the Americas recently took the opportunity to say a special "thank you" to some of the people who helped fund his education at the Nicaragua school.
Daryl Pao, 22, visited Ave Maria University's interim campus in Naples June 27 to express his gratitude for the anonymous donation from an AMU staff member that made it possible for him to complete his degree in business and marketing at AMCA in 2004. During his visit, Pao presented AMU President Nicholas Healy and Chancellor Thomas S. Monaghan with a $2,000 donation of his own, which he hopes will benefit current AMCA students.
"It was very good to say thank you in person," Pao said. "It meant a lot to me to be able to finish my degree at Ave Maria-both the education and the Catholic community there were so good."
As a student at AMCA, Pao was very involved with the life of the campus. At the end of his second year at AMCA, however, it began to look like he would be unable to afford to return to school and complete his degree.
"I come from a very poor family," explained Pao. "At the end of my first year of college, my father had to get a mortgage on his home to keep me in school. But by the end of the second year, things still weren't looking good and I thought I was going to have to drop out altogether."
Fortunately for Pao, Carole Carpenter, Ed.D., vice president for university relations at AMU, visited AMCA toward the end of his second year. She met Pao, was impressed by his commitment to his education and his dedication to AMCA, and resolved to find a way to help him complete his degree. Because Pao was working as a R.D., his room and board were paid for by the college-but he still needed $2,000 to cover the cost of tuition.
"I was glad to meet Daryl on my first visit to AMCA," Carpenter said. "I was inspired by his story, his confidence and his love for Ave Maria."
When she returned to the U.S., Carpenter was able to secure a $2,000 donation to cover the remaining cost of Pao's tuition. The donor, an AMU staff member, asked to remain anonymous.
Pao was able to graduate in a total of three and a half years and got a job with a real estate company in Sacramento, Calif., where he is currently a branch manager. His fiancée, Karina Mairena, graduated from AMCA a year later, got a job with the same company and is also a branch manager.
When he visited AMU's campus with Mairena to express his gratitude for the donation he had received as an undergraduate, Pao gave Healy and Monaghan a check for $2,000, to go toward a scholarship for a current AMCA student in need.
Pao sees his gift as a way of passing on the grace and generosity he received and from which he benefited.
"Lately God has been so merciful to me and has given me financial resources so that I am able to help other people," Pao said. "I gave Mr. Healy and Mr. Monaghan the check so that they can pass it on to someone else like me."