A Community That Gives Back Sherman Chan ’76 remembers his years at Harvey Mudd as being full of a sense of community. Now that his son, Aaron, who has autism, is 21, and Sherman and his wife are reckoning with Aaron’s adulthood, his dearest wish is that his son will have a community of his own. Sherman’s wife, Irma Velasquez, echoes that sentiment. “I want my son to live in a community that will make him happy, with people who love him, people he can love in return,” she says. To that end, Chan, an immigrant from mainland China who graduated with a degree in engineering, and Velasquez, an artist and a native of El Salvador, have started their fourth nonprofit (they have an art school and a school for children with autism, among other ventures, under their belt): an independent living community for people with developmental disabilities, called Rident Park, in Northern California’s Sonoma County. The community will offer independent living for 16 adults on grounds with six separate homes, a pool and a commons building. Each resident will have access, if needed, to 24-hour-a-day direct care. There also will be job training and educational programs for the residents to participate in off-site, in order to encourage interaction with the local community. “We all want to be part of something. People with disabilities have a very hard time creating that community for themselves,” Velasquez says. According to Chan, the project, which is in the beginning stages of a major capital campaign, is slated to be up and running in 2017. “Irma and I are serial nonprofiteers,” he says, though he downplays his involvement in the nitty-gritty of the development of Rident Park. Velasquez corrects this. “Sherman’s been a successful entrepreneur for almost 30 years in terms of starting a company from nothing,” she says. (The company is ASPEN—Advanced Systems for Power Engineering Inc.—which provides software to electric utilities to ensure that their generation and transmission assets are protected in the event of short circuits.) “That knowledge transfers to the creation of these nonprofits. He’s been involved in
strategy, planning—he’s an engineer, after all. He likes to make things.” “I’m a pain for the architects,” Chan adds. He hopes to start a conversation about the need for housing for adults with developmental disabilities such as autism. “I feel that I’m not alone in the Harvey Mudd community with this need—I’m quite sure that others are grappling with this. I’d like to shed light on it and see if we can help each other.” Chan also says he wouldn’t be where he is today if not for Harvey Mudd, so he felt it was important to set up a trust to contribute to Harvey Mudd’s planned giving program. “Both Irma and I are immigrants from other countries. My parents were so poor that we had to borrow the money for the airfare to come here. I got a full scholarship from Harvey Mudd—without that I couldn’t have gone to school, and I’ve done really well as a result from being there. So I was very thankful and wanted to give back.”
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THE CAMPAIGN FOR HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE
— Lia King
To learn how you can include Harvey Mudd College in your estate plans, contact Debbie Bills at 909.607.3162 or email dbills@hmc.edu.
The world needs Harvey Mudd. And Harvey Mudd needs you. hmc.edu/campaign/how-to-give/annual-mudd-fundd/