Gift supports Penn Scholars program

March 26, 2026

Clark University is proud to celebrate a generous $1M gift from trustee Erica J. Penn ’84 and her husband, Kevin Penn, to support merit scholarships at Clark. $200,000 will launch the Penn Scholars program, immediately available to students in the Class of 2030, with $800,000 dedicated to expanding scholarships. This gift reaffirms the Penn family’s deep commitment to Clark, and their dedication to empowering our students to pursue lives and careers of meaning and consequence.

Penn Scholars will support a cohort of 20 incoming students through a combination of financial and experiential resources — providing $5,000 in direct support and an additional $5,000 for immersive, hands-on learning experiences. The program is designed to integrate academic learning with real-world exposure, offering students exclusive access to curated sessions led by members of the Penn family and their networks across key fields including artificial intelligence, finance, health, and marketing. 

The Penn gift represents not only a significant philanthropic investment in our University, but a forward-thinking approach to shaping high-impact student experiences that nourish academic growth, fortify our shared Clark values, and provide the foundational resources and skill-building that are essential to career exploration and preparation.

The Clark community is deeply grateful to the Penn family for their enduring philanthropy to the University, which also includes their previous $750,000 gift made in 2022 to establish the Penn Family Scholarship Fund. That timely and important fund provides support for education in the sciences with a particular emphasis on supporting female undergraduate students in STEM fields.

The Penn Scholars Program perpetuates a giving tradition that directly benefits our students and invests in a shared future they will help build.