Meet our Donors: Steve and Andrea Weiss
When Steve and Andrea Weiss of Davis brought their first child to college more than a decade ago, they arrived in a minivan filled to the brim with household goods from Target and Bed Bath and Beyond.
“After learning about Make It Happen for Yolo County and the youth they work with, we realized how many of these students are doing this solo without a minivan of supplies. That stuck with us,” Steve said. “It wasn’t hard to imagine the challenge it would be for a student to move to a university without those resources or support. They can’t necessarily call mom or dad.”
Both alumni of UC Davis, Steve and Andrea first learned about Make It Happen for Yolo County when their sons started going off to college and they were left with extra furniture in their house that was no longer needed. “We donated some dressers and bed frames to Make It Happen, and I remember arriving at their storage unit and being amazed to see so many items,” Andrea said. “We just felt like helping someone outfit their apartment seemed like a pretty minimal investment and yet helps create their home, which is so foundational to them feeling like they’re in a good spot.”
Several years ago, when Steve was given the opportunity to make a contribution to any nonprofit of his choice through his board service with the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, he chose Make It Happen for Yolo County. “We hadn’t made a financial donation yet, so we dedicated that gift to Make It Happen,” Steve said. “They sent us such a nice follow-up note, and we started learning more about their work. We now make contributions every year and are committed to this cause.”
Steve and Andrea’s commitment to Make It Happen is due in large part to the high value they place on education. Steve’s father was a public-school teacher who was awarded a full-ride scholarship to DePaul University in Chicago, allowing him to become the first in his immediate family to be able to afford college. Steve remembers learning about his grandparents taking in foster youth when his dad was young. Many decades later, his dad had the opportunity to meet one of those foster youth who grew up to become the CEO of a large company. Steve remembers his dad returning from that visit and sharing what a profound impression it had made on him to realize how people could rise from very few resources. “The young people that Make It Happen helps are very deserving students who have worked hard to get into college,” Steve said. “Many are working while attending school. We wanted to make sure they felt someone was there to support and invest in them.”
Steve and Andrea both recognize what an achievement it is to be accepted at UC Davis now, much less afford tuition, food and furnishings. “Instead of focusing on how they will fill their apartment with much-needed items like a bed and cooking supplies, they can focus on their schoolwork and save money for textbooks,” Steve said. “That’s pretty significant. It’s hard for a first-generation college student to make the decision to take themselves out of the work world to go into debt and hope they will eventually earn a salary to make it worth it.”
Having both graduated from UC Davis, Steve and Andrea have a lot of Aggie Pride, they said, so it feels particularly meaningful to support UC Davis students. In addition to being an alumnus, Steve worked on campus for 12 years serving as director of university cultural programs and chairing the building committee for the Mondavi Center for the Arts before joining the Sacramento Bee and then becoming a strategy consultant. For more than 20 years, Andrea has had a private career counseling and nonprofit executive search business. She also contracted to provide career counseling to UC Davis staff for many years. They have lived in Davis since the early 1980s when they arrived at UC Davis. They also support the UC Davis Guardian Scholars program and student programs at Los Rios Community College District, where many students transfer to UC Davis.
“For both of us, we are just happy to know that we can support these students and take some of the worry off of them so they can finish their degree,” Andrea said. “Education is an investment, and we want these kids to not only go to college, but graduate.”
Andrea said she especially enjoys working with young people through her career counseling business as they try to determine their next steps.
“I can see the difference between working with a client who has a lot of connections versus someone who doesn’t have those resources,” Andrea said. “I like being able to support them. Whether they’re going to community college, a university or tech school, I want them to find and develop a meaningful and satisfying career path, not just have a job.”
Steve and Andrea support other nonprofits, including the Yolo Community Foundation, Sacramento Region Community Foundation, Meals on Wheels, Yolo Food Bank, Yolo Crisis Nursery, Center for Land-Based Learning, KVIE, the Mondavi Center and other organizations in the region. They said they like to support organizations making an impact that is life-transforming. What stands out for them about Make It Happen for Yolo County is that the youth are all at an important transition in their lives.
“These are young adults who have a lifetime ahead of them, and they are at an inflection point,” Steve said. “They’re at the precipice of what their future could look like. With Make It Happen, we can support an organization that is helping these students focus on what matters. They have put together such a tangible way to meet people where they’re at in the moment.”
They also are impressed with how volunteers stepped up to create Make It Happen for Yolo County without the support of a national organization. “They involved volunteers and donors, and they have been able to expand and increase their services,” Steve said. “The mission is so vital, and the need isn’t going away. Every day, Make It Happen helps young people improve their life circumstances. They’ve created the right structure and model to help others, and we are so inspired by these students.”
Now that Steve and Andrea are on the other side of raising three kids and sending them to college, they are struck by the stories they read of others who did not have the same level of support. “We want to be active citizens in the community we’re living in,” Andrea said. “We have an immense sense of gratitude for the success we’ve enjoyed personally and professionally, and we feel compelled to help others.”
Steve and Andrea hope Make It Happen for Yolo County will become a statewide model. “There’s just nothing else like Make It Happen,” Steve said. “They found a need and built a business model that delivers on it quickly and efficiently. They found a formula that’s working and it’s wonderful to see.”