Donor Funded Scholarship Stories

The Nancy Ottoboni Endowed Scholarship for Catholic Education will support the educational development of teachers in Catholic schools who are enrolled in the Department of Education. Strong preference will be given to qualified students with financial need who are currently teaching in a Catholic elementary or high school within the geographic boundaries of the Diocese of San Jose and who are pursuing a Master’s degree and/or credential.

Learn a little more about Nancy Ottoboni

Nancy and John Ottoboni met through Nancy’s cousin at a dinner party in September of 1973. John had graduated from Santa Clara University four years earlier in 1969, where he was the student body president. Nancy had earned a degree from St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana in 1968 and was working as an 8th grade teacher at St. Justin School in Santa Clara. Six months after first meeting, John proposed to Nancy on her birthday, March 21, 1974. 

John figured they would have six months or more to plan a nice, autumn wedding. If Nancy’s dedication to her students was not already clear to John, it certainly became so when she told him, “Yes, I’ll marry you, but we’re either getting married this summer or next because I will not disrupt my students during their school year for a wedding and honeymoon.” With their wedding plans suddenly accelerated, John called in a favor from connections at Santa Clara and the two were married in the Mission Church in August of 1974.

Their first child, Julie, was born 10 months later. Four more children followed, and after all five had reached high school age and beyond, Nancy went back to work teaching at St. Mary’s School in Los Gatos, where she impacted the lives of countless children through her kindness, love, grace, and Catholic faith. Before Nancy passed away in 2012, the Ottobonis established the Nancy Ottoboni Endowed Scholarship for Catholic Education, which supports those who will become teachers in Catholic schools.