Award Winners

In 2017, Scott Santarosa, S.J., Provincial of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, was selected for the School of Engineering's highest honor, the Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, recognizing alumni whose accomplishments in their professions, communities, and University service have set them apart.

During his time as a student at SCU, the seeds for Santarosa’s future were planted when he took part in a brief trip to Mexico. There, he witnessed abject poverty but was moved by how the people experienced God’s love. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, he joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, running an after-school program for low-income families in New Jersey, and soon decided to begin the formation process to become a Jesuit. He spent his fourth year of theology studies in Mexico City.

As a Jesuit, Fr. Santarosa spent five years at Verbum Dei High School in Watts, Los Angeles. When he arrived in 2000, the inner-city school was on the verge of closing. Just 6 years later he had transformed it into a well-respected Catholic preparatory school for low-income students, with 100 percent of the graduating students accepted to college. For the next 8 years he lovingly pastored Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles, a parish dedicated to social justice through serving the poor and the immigrant. In 2014 he took on the role of Provincial of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus and as the Jesuits merge the California and Oregon provinces he will head the new province, which also includes Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Hawaii.

For the contributions he has made to enriching the lives and furthering the prospects for the poorest of society, and for his leadership within the Society of Jesus, Fr. Scott Santarosa receives this award.