October 11, 1994 Contact: Barbara McKenna (408/459-2495)

NEW ARCHIVE AT UC SANTA CRUZ WILL SERVE AS VALUABLE RESOURCE ON THE EDUCATION OF MIGRANT AND IMMIGRANT CHILDREN

Celebrations of the work of local philanthropist William Mackenzie set for October 23 in Santa Cruz and November 6 in Pebble Beach

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--For much of his life, William Mackenzie was concerned with the prospects of the children of immigrants and migrant workers. A Monterey Bay Area resident, Mackenzie made it his mission to help those children attend college.

Mackenzie, who died in 1993, was an investment banker in the 1930s. He first became aware of the obstacles children of migrant farmworkers faced in gaining an education when he returned from service in World War II to ranch in the San Juan Bautista area. He became passionate about educating disadvantaged children-- mentoring students, working with teachers and counselors, obtaining scholarship funds, and, in 1979 founding the Migration and Adaptation in the Americas Foundation (MAIA).

An archive that documents much of Mackenzie's research and correspondence on the topic of the education of immigrants and farmworkers has been established at Special Collections in the University Library at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Two events are planned to celebrate the archive, one at UCSC and one at the Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach--the area Mackenzie retired to. The first event takes place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, October 23, in UCSC's Special Collections at McHenry Library. The second takes place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 6, at The Gallery in the Samuel F. B. Morse Fine Arts Center at Robert Louis Stevenson School.

The archive--donated by Mackenzie's widow, Shirley Mackenzie--includes Mackenzie's extensive correspondence with educators and the students he mentored, as well as videos and books of clippings he compiled on migration of populations and education- related topics. The archive will complement the already extensive collection of regional history materials housed in the University Library and will serve as an excellent resource for scholars. Already, two postdoctoral researchers are using the archive to learn more about ways to encourage students to continue their studies.

Members of Mackenzie's family, as well as former students who Mackenzie mentored, will attend both celebrations. Amado Padilla, a professor of education at Stanford University, will speak at the October 23 event, while Carmel photographer S. Beth Atkin will attend the November 6 event. Both events are free and open to the public.

Both events will feature an exhibition of selected photographs by Atkin that appear in her book Voices from the Fields: Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1993). Atkin's photographs will be on display at UCSC from October 23 through November 19, and at Robert Louis Stevenson School from November 6 through December 8.

Mackenzie helped students on both a personal and an organizational level. He formed the MAIA Foundation along with the late Hubert Wyckoff, a Watsonville lawyer, to help educate the public on issues concerning immigrant and migrant workers. MAIA, which is headquartered in Watsonville and serves Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, also provides start-up grants to other groups serving migrants and immigrants. MAIA is just one project Mackenzie was instrumental in launching. He was also a leading proponent of outreach programs that provide academic support and scholarships to minority students at Cabrillo, Hartnell, and Gavilan colleges.

On a personal level, Mackenzie worked in partnership with retired Watsonville High School counselor Mike Sullivan to help send some 70 students off to college. To this end, Mackenzie spoke with the students, lobbied on their behalf at college and university admissions offices, met with their families, and connected them with other area students who had gone on to college.

His personal involvement with area students was boundless. A friend recalls the time Mackenzie received a call from one of his proteges, then a freshman at Princeton University (Mackenzie's alma mater). The distraught student confided to Mackenzie that he was having such difficulty with a term paper that he was considering dropping out. Although it was 2 a.m., Mackenzie immediately called Andrea Watson, another of his proteges at Princeton. "He told me, 'Go over there and tell him he can do it!'" recalls Watson, now a student at Harvard Business School. And so, Watson obliged--getting dressed and trudging through the snow in the middle of the night. Not only did the student finish his term paper, he stayed in school and earned his degree.

For more information on the archive celebration at UCSC, call Special Collections at (408) 459-2547. For information on the celebration at Robert Louis Stevenson School, call (408) 626-5300.

(This release is also available on UC NewsWire, the University of California's electronic news service. To access by modem, dial 1- 209-244-6971.)

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