Mangaluru: Nearly 43 years after leaving St Aloysius High School, the batch of 1983 has returned with a gift designed to benefit generations of students — a self-sustaining scholarship endowment launched with an initial corpus of Rs 65 lakh.Believed to be the first class-driven scholarship endowment in the institution’s 146-year history, the initiative is designed to grow over time while providing sustained financial support to deserving students.The inaugural St Aloysius Class of 1983 Scholarship Awards were presented during the annual feast of St Aloysius Gonzaga. The beneficiaries were Ashwini Shettigar, MA Abdul Azaz Shayan and Sharon D’Costa, while a fourth recipient, Snithik Churya, received the scholarship later at the headmaster’s office.The initiative took shape in 2024 after more than 70 classmates from India and abroad reconnected through social media following a gap of over four decades. What began as a reunion evolved into a collaborative effort, culminating in the establishment of the endowment in April 2025 under the guidance of the then Rector, late Fr Melwyn Pinto.The corpus has been invested in selected financial market instruments with guidance from alumni working in the finance sector. Only the annual investment earnings will fund scholarships, while the principal corpus remains intact and continues to grow through returns and future contributions. The long-term goal is to support 12 students annually from class10 to II PUC.The event also honoured former high school assistant headmaster Shambu Shetty and former primary school teachers Lidwin D’Souza and Celine Rego. Urging younger generations to sustain the initiative, Shetty said, “It is easy to plant a seed. The real challenge is to nurture it and help it grow.”
