This scholarship was established by Theron and Kalée in order to provide assistance to freshmen entering the Department of Computer Science & Engineering.
Theron started young at the University of Washington in the Early Entrance Program, which accelerates middle school students for early admission to the university. He struggled at first until he found his calling with Computer Science and was extremely grateful the department accepted him despite his initially sub-par grades.
Kalée studied Chemistry before realizing that what she loved was teaching and not tinkering with lab equipment. She has degrees in both Chemistry and Education and combines her two interests by teaching science classes to middle schoolers in an online school.
Theron and Kalée met at Stanford through a common interest in dance. Currently (2016) they live in Silicon Valley and have three children in elementary and middle school. With family in Seattle they remain connected to the area and come visit the UW campus typically once a year.
Both Theron and Kalée grew up in families with a strong emphasis on education and continue that tradition by investing a lot of time with their children and community. By creating this scholarship, they hope to gift to students the opportunity of a strong education that might otherwise be out of their reach -- especially for students who, like Theron, followed a non-traditional educational path yet would excel if given the right challenges and opportunities.
This scholarship will be awarded to incoming freshmen with demonstrated financial need, as determined by the Office of Student Financial Aid. The award amount varies depending on the individual need of the recipients.
This scholarship is available only to students currently enrolled as Computer Science or Computer Engineering majors at the University of Washington.