By Eileen Conrad

UC Santa Barbara has received a $500,000 gift from entrepreneur James Jimenez of Temple City to support academic preparation programs for K-12 students in Fillmore. The goal is to enable more students to qualify for college admission.

“Mr. Jimenez’s generous gift ensures that generations of K-12 students in the Fillmore area will receive the academic support needed to be prepared for admission to UC Santa Barbara and other colleges and universities,” said Joseph Castro, executive director of UCSB’s Office of Academic Preparation and Equal Opportunity.

“James Jimenez was one of the founders of the Mexican food industry and is a role model in the Latino community,” Castro continued. “He understands that investments that increase the number of

K-12 students who attend college are critical to the success of the state’s economy.”

The gift will create an endowed academic preparation program that will focus primarily on students who would be the first in their families to attend a college or university. It will provide enhanced on-site academic advising and counseling, homework assistance, mentorship opportunities, scholarship support, and bi-lingual workshops for Spanish-speaking parents.

Jimenez, the son of a Mexican immigrant and the second of 12 children, never went to college, although he was valedictorian of his class at Lincoln High School in Los Angeles and had been admitted to Stanford University with a full scholarship. Because his family needed him as a wage earner, he had to set aside his ambition of becoming a doctor and work so that his siblings could remain in school.

Throughout his extraordinary career, Jimenez was a fast learner who relied on vision, tenacity, and his ability to solve problems. He worked a variety of jobs—washing dishes, sanding floors, bookkeeping, and as a machinist—before he became a top salesman of restaurant equipment.

At age 50, he and a partner launched Electra Food Machinery Inc. to develop equipment for the industry Jimenez knew so well. It quickly became an industry leader thanks to a succession of inventions that helped revolutionize the fast-food business nationwide.

Jimenez’s gift to UCSB underscores his belief in the transformative quality of education and the need to involve parents early in the process. “All my life, people have helped me all along the way,” said Jimenez, talking about his desire to help Fillmore students realize their dreams.

Since 1990, Jimenez has been providing scholarships for outstanding high school students in Fillmore, the rural farming community to which he and his wife, Katherine, retired 25 years ago. Both Katherine Jimenez and two of their daughters graduated from Occidental College.