SCHOLARSHIPS AND GIVING
The Mallaces
Make Giving Back a Family Affair As early as his senior year at ASU in 1985, Jeff Mallace knew he wanted to help others in return for the help he received as a student. “I was very fortunate to receive grants and financial assistance,” said Mallace, who worked full time while pursuing a degree in finance at the W. P. Carey School of Business. “ASU helped me out financially in a time of need. I never forgot that.” Mallace and his brother, Michael, who graduated from the Cronkite School in 1982, were taught the importance of hard work and giving back by their parents, who were small-business owners. Mallace and his wife, Claudia, are now funding scholarships for students attending the Cronkite School and the Carey School. Mallace attributes much of his professional and personal success to the value of his degree from ASU. He went on to spend his career with Frito-Lay Inc. Michael Mallace is now general manager of Sierra H
Scholarship donors Claudia and Jeff Mallace visit the Cronkite News studio. Photo courtesy of ASU Foundation
Broadcasting, which operates two radio stations in the Phoenix area. Michael and his wife Fran — another Cronkite graduate — also are members of the Cronkite School’s Endowment Board of Trustees. “Claudia and I are proud to be able to support both the W. P. Carey School of Business, where I earned my degree,
and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where Michael and my sister-in-law, Fran, earned their degrees,” Jeff Mallace said. “Our desire is that these scholarships will help shape and enrich the lives of many students for years to come.”
Scholarship Supports Student Reporters in Washington Bureau One of the biggest stories to come out of Cronkite News in the summer of 2016 was senior Wafa Shahid’s extended sit-down interview with Khizr Khan, the Gold Star Father who spoke out against then-candidate Donald Trump and was criticized by Trump in return. It’s a story Shahid would not have been able to land without the Mandala Scholarship, which allowed her to spend a semester in Cronkite’s Washington, D.C., bureau and be part of the team of Cronkite reporters covering the political conventions. “It’s a huge honor to be awarded this scholarship,” Shahid said. “I couldn’t be more thankful to the Mandala family for helping me pursue my dreams. They’re truly inspirational people.” The Cheryl and Andy Mandala Family Scholarship is awarded each semester to students covering business and economic affairs for Cronkite News in the Washington bureau. The Mandalas founded Mortgage Commentary, a 48
The Cronkite Journal
2016-2017
financial and business newsletter company now owned by Thomson Reuters. The couple established the scholarship in 2011, when Cronkite News opened its D.C. bureau. “Looking back at our own careers and remembering how much we learned as young reporters in Washington, we believed strongly that this kind of knowledge could not be gained from a textbook or sitting in the classroom,” Cheryl Mandala said. Andy Mandala, who had been a business reporter in both New York and Washington, said at the time the scholarship was established that “by far, the work in Washington was more meaningful.” A dozen student reporters have benefited from the Mandalas’ generosity, which has let students worry more about their reporting and less about their financials. “I definitely think that when I was weighing staying in Phoenix versus going all the way across the country, the financial factor was something that came up,” said Mauro Whiteman, a 2014