Stories

Kelby Uebelhor toured a lot of California schools as a high school student—University of San Diego, Cal Poly, and Santa Barbara, to name a few. But when he got to Santa Clara University, the Jasper, Indiana, native was hooked—on the location, values, and opportunities he found here.

“The speech they gave students on the tour was just mind-blowing,” he said. “For one thing, there’s not as many big companies where I’m from, and to be able to get internships with some of the biggest companies in the world, like Apple and Google, for someone like me, that’s just mind boggling.”

He also really appreciated that community service and giving back are part of the culture of SCU—values ingrained in him from his own Catholic faith and as an Eagle Scout.  

Uebelhor is now a first-year student at SCU, planning to major in business, probably marketing. He’s also one of 90 LEAD Scholars—students whose parents did not attend four-year college—who are provided with special support, classes and camaraderie to ease the transition. Uebelhor’s dad and mom attended two-year colleges, and are now co-owner of a car dealership and a school aide, respectively.

Largest Class Ever

The Class of 2021, which arrived on campus for their first day of classes Sept. 18, is the largest class of first-year students enrolled at Santa Clara University in its 166-year history.  At 1,405 students, it beats the previous record first-year class of 2006, which had 1,339 students.
 
Like Uebelhor, many students are drawn to Santa Clara for its values, its location in Silicon Valley, and its track record of graduates earning upwards of $63,000 in early-career salary. They also relish the strong opportunities for networking and internships as well as real-world instruction from the Bronco alumni network and Silicon Valley partners.

“We’ve attracted a diverse and extremely high-academic-caliber first-year class of students that our faculty want to teach, and our students want to live and learn with,” says a proud Eva Blanco Masias, SCU’s dean of undergraduate admission.
 
Forty-two percent of the Class of 2021 hails from out of state, with students coming from 41 states and 31 countries. They are studying a wide array of subjects: 52 percent in the College of Arts and Sciences, 30 percent in business, and 18 percent engineering.

The class is also diverse. In addition to the largest-ever class of LEAD Scholars, the Class of 2021 is 50:50 male to female, with about 47 percent of the student body identifying as non-white. Data company College Factual ranked SCU No. 339 out of 2,718 colleges or universities for ethnic diversity, and No. 124 for gender diversity.

Uebelhor isn’t waiting to take advantage of all that SCU has to offer. At a recent club fair, he signed up for about 10 clubs, including the wilderness-exploration group Into the Wild, the Santa Clara Review literary magazine, Psychology Club, and even the American Sign Language club—just because it seemed interesting.

And already, in his first week, he learned that one of his instructors has a son with an extremely interesting job.  

Marketing. For Apple.