James W. Trent Education Scholarship Fund
2021-2022 Recipients: Nolan Golen, Jessalyn Cruz & Betrica Besada
This scholarship was established to provide financial assistance to students who exhibit an exceptionally high commitment to education, broadly embracing and serving their communities. Preference will be given to underrepresented minority graduate students or to graduate students who are first generation college students.
Learn a little more about James W. Trent
James W. Trent was born in Los Angeles in 1933. He started high school at Loyola High in Los Angeles, but graduated from Bellarmine College Prepatory in 1951, after moving to San Jose, where his father, Clarke Heath Trent, was a purchasing agent for O’Connor Hospital. James decided to attend Santa Clara because it was the “nearest Catholic University with Jesuit training.” Neither of his parents attended college. He was a first generation student and earned a BA in English in 1955.
In his applications for financial assistance from SCU (which led to Phelan scholarships), James recounted his concerns about his ability to finance his education, citing no outside help available to him from his family. His father’s salary was needed to cover basic family expenses and James worked through summer and Christmas breaks to earn money for his tuition, books, clothing, and spending money, some of which he contributed back to his family. In his 1953-1954 financial aid application, James declared his intent to “teach secular college students, fortified with Catholic principles.”
A loving husband, attentive father, loyal parishoner and friend, he exemplified one who rigorously sought and lived out his vocational mission: "create, nurture and mantain the environment of growth, challenge and unlimited potential for myself and all those around me." A professor for over three decades, James lived out the Jesuit ideals of competence, conscience, and compassion as he educated students, mentored faculty, and served his community at large.