WSU Alumnus Supports Entrepreneurship Program with $1 Million Gift

The WSU College of Business has received a $1 million gift from alumnus Don (CB '56) and Mary Ann Parachini in support of students and faculty in the Entrepreneurship program. The gift established a scholarship endowment and a distinguished professorship. “The Parachinis' gift will help to produce graduates who have the desire and ability to apply practical business methods to improve society,” says Len Jessup, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. “It will serve as a tremendous boost to the college’s drive toward developing students with an entrepreneurial and innovative spirit.”

The Don and Mary Ann Parachini Scholarship in Entrepreneurship will support WSU students pursuing training in entrepreneurship and innovation. With the scholarship, non-business students will be able to marry the study of entrepreneurship with their chosen major. The Parachinis' hope is that the multidisciplinary approach to entrepreneurship will help to educate and inspire students to solve problems creatively and seize opportunities to improve systems, invent and disseminate new approaches, and advance sustainable solutions that create social value.

“Through the Parachinis' support, an increasing number of WSU students seeking to influence positive societal change will gain essential skills to match their creativity with practicality,” says College of Liberal Arts Dean Erich Lear.

The goal of this professorship is to provide a focus of incorporating the concept of social entrepreneurship in curriculum so that students from all disciplines will gain tools to implement practical business solutions to social problems they encounter in their chosen fields and industry. In addition to curricula development and research on areas of entrepreneurship and innovation, the holder of the Don and Mary Ann Parachini Distinguished Professorship in Entrepreneurship will also be responsible for administering the scholarship program.  

Don and Mary Ann Parachini have been actively engaged with WSU throughout the years. Don currently serves as a member of the WSU Foundation Board of Governors, has been a WSU Trustee, and has served on the University’s Northern California Leadership Advisory Council, the WSU Foundation’s Gift Acceptance Committee and Planned Gift Committee. He is also a member of the college’s Entrepreneurship Advisory Board and National Board of Advisors.