Kerfuffle Foundation Gives $1 Million to the School of Education
The Kerfuffle Foundation’s decade-long partnership with the University of San Francisco School of Education reached a milestone this year with a new one million dollar commitment, reinforcing the school’s profile as the largest graduate School of Education in Northern California.
Consistent support by Kerfuffle over the last decade, totaling over five million dollars, has significantly strengthened the school’s capacity to serve students, advance scholarship, and invest in community wellness and academic programs.
The new gift includes $500,000 in unrestricted support for the School of Education and $500,000 dedicated to the Department of International and Multicultural Education (IME), which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Together, the funds reflect the foundation’s sustained confidence in the school’s vision to enhance students’ understanding of what it means to be involved in Jesuit education, to educate leaders with a global perspective, to work for social justice, and to make the world a better place.
Kerfuffle Foundation support has generated considerable impact for USF students. Scholarship funding for students with financial need has tripled in the last five years, benefiting approximately 900 School of Education students to date.
“Having access to current-use funds makes an immediate difference,” said Dean Shabnam Koirala-Azad. “It allows us to respond to student needs in real time and to build programs, support research, and invest in community-centered initiatives without delay.”
In the IME department, scholarship support has helped the doctoral program become the largest in the school, now comprising more than half of all School of Education doctoral students. Professor and Chair of International and Multicultural Education, Monisha Bajaj Ed.D., has witnessed how the foundation’s support has transformed the program.
With the retention rate for doctoral students soaring, increasing by 30 percent in just a few years, the foundation’s support has aided students as they persist through the challenges of dissertation research and completion.
“Kerfuffle’s support has been an incredible gift to our IME community, and has allowed us to graduate some of the most brilliant and talented engaged scholars of our generation,” said Monisha Bajaj, Ed.D.
One of the most visible outcomes of the partnership is the Center for Humanizing Education and Research (C-HER), launched in 2020 with Kerfuffle Foundation support. Since then, C-HER has become a recognized leader in advancing humanizing research practices. The center has awarded nearly 30 mini-grants to student researchers and regularly hosts speaker events that attract nearly 400 community members at each event.
As IME looks to its next 50 years, the department continues to expand programs that reflect its transnational-and-social-justice-focused lens. Recent additions include new doctoral offerings, a racial justice program, and an upcoming interdisciplinary program in human rights.
“Education is society-building work,” Koirala-Azad said. “Supporting the School of Education means supporting the people who are shaping new ways of thinking, teaching, and living together.”
Reflecting on the partnership, she said, “Kerfuffle’s support has allowed us to dream big. We began a strategic planning process in 2018, and the hopes that faculty and staff shared at that time have since become realities.”
As the school continues to build on its momentum, the gift ensures that students from historically excluded communities remain at the center of its mission: supported, prepared, and empowered to lead change through education.
Help expand access and opportunity for School of Education students over the next 50 years.
