Pat Kraemer, ’85, mathematics, and Jim Stockman, ’93, information management, value their Cal State San Bernardino educations so much that they have stayed connected over the years and continue to give back to their alma mater.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for Cal State San Bernardino,” says Kraemer. “I would say it was just the foundation for everything.”

Majoring in what was then a new degree area of information management, Stockman agrees. “I feel like I’ve got a really good foundation.” His degree was especially important to him. “Nobody in my family, going back as many generations as you want, has stepped foot on a college campus, and I was determined that I would be the first.”

However, the couple faced challenges in pursuing their academic dreams. Both recall how very poor they were, and family assistance with college costs was not available to them. That meant that they each had to hold down a full-time job and structure their classes around their work demands.

CSUSB “had a flexible schedule so we could work. It had the classes we needed,” says Kraemer. “We weren’t able to spend a lot of time on campus because we were working. A lot of times it was arrive, go to class, go to work, that sort of thing.”

“We were poor, we scraped and because we were both determined that we were going to go, we took turns,” remembers Stockman. “Pat went first. After she graduated, and we got our feet under us, I went.”

It was this recognition that CSUSB students today are facing some of the same struggles of balancing work, school and having a family life that led them to decide to give back to the university.

“We know that there’s a lot of other people out there like us that don’t have much money and going to school and having a life is a challenge. And we wanted to make that a little bit easier for people,” says Stockman.

Pat Kraemer and Jim Stockman
Jim Stockman (left) and Pat Kraemer

It is important to them both that their money is used for a good cause. As they do not have children of their own, they were looking for an opportunity to have a direct impact on people’s lives. For them, this includes supporting a student’s need for textbooks or giving toward the Obershaw DEN, “where you’re literally helping people eat,” as Kraemer says. She adds that it also includes scholarships, “so people maybe can get through a little more easily.”

“Everything really sincerely helps,” says Stockman.

A sense of accomplishment comes as much from the knowledge of persistence even when it’s hard, as in crossing the finish line itself.  Kraemer wants current students to know this: “It might be tough now, but you’ll get through it, and you’ll look back on these days and say, Oh, I really accomplished something with this and I can be proud of what I did. And then I graduated and now I’m just ready to face the world.”

The couple recently visited the campus – the first time in several years – and were astounded at what they found. They have remained connected to CSUSB through alumni newsletters and social media, but being present in person was incredibly impactful. 

“We were just amazed at how the university has grown ­­– so many more students, so many more facilities,” says Kraemer. “The huge student union and the beautiful new classroom buildings – it’s tripled in size, both, I think, in the number of students and then the number of buildings and the facilities that are there.”

Stockman was very impressed by the under-construction Performing Arts Center. “That is going to be a huge draw,” he says.

One of the surprising things that they took away with them? The availability of parking back then versus now.

“I remember people following me in the parking lot with their cars because parking was so terrible,” says Kraemer. “Then we used to laugh about it that it was so limited that if you saw somebody heading to their parking spot with your books, you would creep along behind them with your car.”

Stockman sums it up with a simple observation. “There are parking structures at Cal State now!”

Memories of hard times, yet good times; deciding to give back to support the students following in their footsteps; celebrating the growth of the campus over the years and the affordable opportunity it still provides to IE students to reach their educational goals; and delighting in the availability of parking – these are just some of the characteristics of #Coyotes4Life, exemplified by Pat Kraemer and Jim Stockman.