Trustee’s gift aimed at helping college lure more international students

Carlos Alvarez

Davidson College has received a $10 million gift from Mexican-born entrepreneur Carlos Alvarez and his wife Malu to establish a new scholarship program for international students.

Creation of the Alvarez Scholars Program comes as Davidson College tries to implement a key goal of a strategic plan adopted last October: “internationalizing” the campus by admitting more international students and expanding the international curriculum and awareness.

To achieve that goal, college officials said last fall, enrollment will be expanded by 150 students in the coming years. Davidson currently has 1,800 students, including 62 from 31 foreign countries.

Davidson President Tom Ross announced the gift Friday morning at a meeting of Davidson’s board of trustees, of which Mr. Alvarez is a member.

Tom Ross (Christopher Record photo)

“Davidson has long emphasized global education — through the courses we teach, the students we enroll, and the educational and service opportunities that we provide,” President Ross said in a statement. “Through the extraordinary generosity of Carlos and Malu, the Alvarez Scholars Program will open Davidson’s doors more widely to the most talented students from all over the world.”

Mr. Alvarez is president and CEO of The Gambrinus Co., a privately-held brewer based in San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Alvarez founded the company in 1986, when he began marketing the beers of Mexico’s Grupo Modelo – including Corona Extra and Modelo brands – in the eastern U.S. and Texas. Today the company’s best-known brands include Pete’s Wicked and other ales, Shiner Bock, and BridgePort ales.

The $10 million gift is not his first to the college, where his daughter, Malu, graduated in 2002. In 2000, he and his wife donated money to name the then-newly opened Alvarez College Union. They’ve also helped fund other scholarships and renovation of the college’s Cunningham Theatre Center and given to the college’s Annual Fund.

Mr. Alvarez has been a trustee since 2003, and the couple were members of Davidson’s Parents Council from 1998 to 2002.

President Ross called Mr. Alvarez “an extraordinarily thoughtful trustee.” “This gift is further evidence of his and Malu’s love for the college, and of their belief in and hopes for Davidson’s future. I am particularly delighted that Carlos and Malu have chosen to establish the Alvarez Scholars Program with this gift,” President Ross said in the statement.

Mr. Alvarez said he supports the college’s efforts to globalize. “I am very impressed with the strategic plan’s commitment to Davidson’s international program. I feel that our scholarship initiative will help the college attract outstanding students from all over the world. I admire Davidson’s focus on educating students for leadership and service, and I hope that the Alvarez Scholars Program helps demonstrate the college’s commitment to creating a global community at Davidson,” he said in a statement.

The new scholarship fund will expand money available to lure top foreign scholars to Davidson. Said Christopher Gruber, Davidson’s vice president and dean of admission and financial aid: “This remarkable gift to establish the Alvarez Scholars Program will help us tremendously with our recruitment of international students.”

The college said that as a member of the Trustees’ Admission and Financial Aid Committee, Mr. Alvarez also has been involved in another major initiative, The Davidson Trust, an aid program to help all students on campus graduate without loans. In 2007, Davidson became the nation’s first liberal arts college to eliminate loans from financial aid packages.

Besides his daughter and his own involvement, the Alvarezes have other Wildcat connections. One niece, Matty Villareal-Alvarez, is an international student at the college, and another niece, Daniela Villareal-Alvarez, came to Davidson as an international student and graduated from Davidson in 2007.

RELATED LINKS

Oct. 26, 2009, DavidsonNews.net, “Strategic plan envisions more students, new areas of focus: Davidson College adopt blueprint for innovations on campus.”

Davidson College official web page about the strategic plan.

Davidson College Strategic Plan, as adopted by Trustees, Oct. 2009, (PDF)

The Gambrinus Co.