Empowering the Next Generation of Engineering Leaders With New $11 Million Gift

Duke University has received $11 million from the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation, a private family foundation based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on educating engineers for the most pressing challenges of today. The award brings the foundation’s total support for the program to more than $30 million. 

Specifically, the award will benefit the A. James Clark Scholars at Duke, which was established by the family foundation in 2018. Clark Scholars receive full tuition and financial aid support through Duke’s financial aid office and the Clark Scholars program.

“The Clark Foundation’s support is empowering Duke engineering students to pursue research and innovation with global impact,” said Vincent E. Price, president of Duke University. “James and Alice Clark left an incredible legacy of support for Duke students, and we are grateful that their daughter Courtney is continuing their legacy of generosity and investment in the next generation of engineers.”

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The Clark Scholars Program is Mr. Clark’s living legacy at 11 of the United States’ top engineering institutions. Once described by Forbes magazine as the “king of concrete,” Clark believed in the power of engineering education to develop the leaders needed to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges.

At Duke, the Clark Scholars program has taken this mission and run with it, developing an innovative program with many powerful facets focusing on leadership and service rooted in innovation and entrepreneurship. For example, each cohort is sent on an international experience focused on helping local entrepreneurs during the summer before their second year at Duke.

That has never been more the case for Philip Liu, a product owner of AI solutions at NBCUniversal Media, who graduated from Duke’s Clark Scholars program in 2022. Taking full advantage the program, Liu ultimately graduated with a major in mechanical engineering, minor in economics and certificates in innovation and entrepreneurship and philosophy, politics and economics.

In his current role, Liu leads an AI squad developing an AI chatbot/agent, driving product strategy and execution.

“Receiving financial support from the Clark Scholars Program was incredibly impactful to me because it enabled me to take advantage of all the opportunities Duke offered,” Liu said. “By helping alleviate general financial concerns and other factors like work-study, the program empowered me to be ‘outrageously ambitious’ and focus on academics, extracurriculars, community service, career preparation and student life.”

At the heart of the A. James Clark Scholars program is creating a framework to allow students to grow.

“My goal with the program was to help students build deep connections with one another, their mentors, Duke and Durham,” said Bill Walker, former Mattson Family Director of Engineering Entrepreneurship and former director of the Clark Scholars Program at Duke, who is now chief technology officer at Boundless Science. “I know from many conversations that our work around vulnerability, connection and meaning helped students build a trusted tribe. From that point of safety, our students have grown into outstanding scholars, researchers, innovators, and leaders.”

Courtney Clark Pastrick class of 1977 and the chair of the board governing the foundation, said she could not agree more. “My experience at Duke was formative, in no large part to the opportunities I had to invest in fellow students, faculty and my community,” she said, “To see this multiplied through the Clark Scholars program not only gives our family foundation purpose but inspires us to continue to make a difference for Duke for the world.”