Southwestern University alumnus, age 29, gives alma mater $500,000 to fund student creativity

Southwestern University alumnus Joey King, age 29, has donated $500,000 to his alma mater to establish the King Creativity Fund, which will annually support "innovative and visionary projects" of enrolled students.

It is expected that the fund will support up to 20 projects in any given academic year with each grant award ranging up to $1500 per project. Southwestern, a selective, nationally-ranked liberal arts college, currently enrolls 1,231 students. Nearly sixty percent of last fall's incoming first year class ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

"Southwestern University students are innately a creative group and thrive in the liberal arts environment," says King, a 1993 graduate and co-founder of the Seattle-based technology companies Indaba Communications Inc. and Zama Networks Inc.

"I hope that the fund encourages new creative endeavors and teaches students to exercise and develop their creative abilities. I believe that creativity is the key to American competitiveness, and it is also the key to happiness. I hope that the fund equally encourages curricular and extracurricular projects. I think that projects of this sort are an essential part of the liberal arts education."

Creative projects can be carried out on Southwestern's campus or at another institution or laboratory. Projects from all disciplines are eligible and multidisciplinary projects are especially encouraged.

Grants will be awarded by a six-member committee composed of four students, representing the fine arts, the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences, as well as a faculty advisor and an administrative advisor. With the exception of its inaugural year, student committee members will be drawn from the list of students who have been awarded a King Creativity Grant in previous years.

Committee members will base awards on their creative merit, the soundness of the proposal, their feasibility, potential for educational enhancement, qualifications of the student project directors, and budget projections.

King Creativity Grant recipients will present the results of their projects at an annual symposium to be held in the spring of each year. King plans to attend each year.

"Southwestern University continues to enrich its educational program year after year, due, in large part, to the generous philanthropy of people like Mr. King," said William B. Jones, executive vice president at Southwestern. "Clearly, he recognizes the difference one person can make in the lives of many."

King's current business projects at Indaba - a Zulu word for "interact" or "a meeting of wise people"- range from 3D interface design to system software and hardware. The combination will enable people to communicate via large-scale, photorealistic virtual environments. His other company Zama Networks, which draws its name from the Zulu word meaning "to endeavor," is creating an Asia-Pacific Internet backbone which will interconnect the United States and 13 Asia-Pacific countries. He expects to begin a number of new companies in the next five to 10 years, which he may locate in the Austin area.

King, who majored in psychology and computer science at Southwestern, says liberal arts graduates-Southwestern students in particular-who are trained to be flexible and open to new learning opportunities are poised to fill needs that graduates of traditional research universities cannot. Because "they are willing to do anything and everything," he says, liberal arts graduates are most likely to succeed in technology and biomedical companies, which he predicts will be the major industries of the next century.

More information on the King Creativity Fund

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