USD to Announce Major Gift From Irwin and Joan Jacobs

USD to Announce Major Gift From Irwin and Joan Jacobs

Gift to be used for state-of-the-art Mobile Technology Learning Center

Longtime philanthropists and supporters of innovation in education, Dr. Irwin Jacobs and Joan Jacobs have pledged $3,000,000 to the University of San Diego’s School of Leadership & Education Sciences’s (SOLES) Mobile Technology Learning Center (MTLC).

The Jacobs’ generous gift to SOLES will provide the funding to attract nationally recognized innovators and researchers as well as a dedicated director for the Center. The gift will also further the mobile technology related research, teaching and professional development being provided to San Diego County school districts. Construction of an on campus state of the art mobile technology learning studio will begin this summer.

WHO: Irwin and Joan Jacobs, USD President Mary Lyons, SOLES Dean Paula Cordeiro, Superintendents from San Diego area schools

WHAT: Press conference to announce gift from Joan and Irwin Jacobs for the Mobile Technology Learning Center

WHERE: USD’s Garden by the Sea, located behind the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice

WHEN: Monday, June 17 at 10 a.m.

The MTLC anticipates significant outcomes over the next five years:

  • Create, in the state of California and at the national level, a climate of policy supportive of mobile learning
  • Significantly increase the number of classrooms and schools—locally and nationally—that regularly use mobile learning technologies
  • Establish an organization which can act as a clearinghouse for "best practices", worldwide, in the application of mobile learning technology in education.
  • Advance, cultivate and encourage widespread conversations by thought leaders and educators, locally, and nationally, and worldwide.

Several San Diego Superintendents and SOLES staff will be available to discuss current and future projects and plans for the center.

The press conference is open to the media.


About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.