Refugee students from global trouble spots will receive a financial helping hand to attend Pomona College thanks to a $1.2 million gift from alumnus and trustee Paul Eckstein and his wife, Florence.

The couple along with the college recently established the Dr. Albert Eckstein and Liese Bendheim Eckstein Scholarship, which will help students fleeing crises continue their undergraduate education. The scholarship will honor Paul’s parents, Liese and Albert Eckstein, who left Germany as Hitler consolidated power in 1936.

Whether displaced by war, political upheaval or natural disaster, the scholarship funds will support current or former refugee students.

“Our hope is that the students who receive this scholarship in my parents’ names will use their Pomona education to make a difference in their communities and chosen fields,” Paul Eckstein said in a statement. “Who knows if they will be Nobel Prize winners, great senators or wonderful writers or musicians? I like to dream and think this gift will in some way help facilitate that.”

“We are grateful to Paul and Flo[rence] for their longstanding commitment to and support of Pomona College,” Pomona College President Gabrielle Starr said in a statement. “This extraordinary act of generosity in honor of Paul’s parents will impact the lives of generations to come and support students how and when they need it most.”

To learn more visit pomona.edu/news.