‘31E Scholar Society creates lasting connections
The legacy of the Michigan Engineering class of 1931.
Two years into the Great Depression, 247 students graduated from Michigan Engineering in the class of 1931. Financial problems had forced many of their peers to drop out, and money was tight for those who remained.
Graduation brought another expense—the cost of renting a cap and gown. Frustrated at the high price, a member of the class suggested using the modest sum in their class fund to buy caps and gowns and rent them to future engineering students at a lower price than the shops in town. They didn’t know it at the time, but this was just the start of the class of 1931’s legacy of generosity and community support at Michigan Engineering.
The classmates stayed in touch, attending reunions organized by class president Paul S. Bigby every five years and, after their forty-fifth reunion, annually. At the forty-seventh reunion, alum Chuck Dybvig shared that his son had been killed in action in the Vietnam War; he and his wife would use their son’s insurance money for a scholarship in his memory. Inspired by this generosity, the class voted to endow a scholarship fund and established the 1931 Engineering Class Scholarship Fund and Scholar Society in 1981 with an initial check for $108,000.
Class members, families, friends and ’31E beneficiaries continued to generously contribute to the endowed scholarship fund. Today, it is valued at over $10 million. Since the initial scholarship awards in 1982, it has distributed nearly $7 million to over 200 Michigan Engineering beneficiaries, selected based on academic record, community service, school activities, and employment experience. Five to eight awards are given each year.
The financial impact is profound, but the real legacy of the class of 1931 is more personal.
“Part of the thing that makes ‘31E special is the community that surrounds it,” said Marshall Vielmetti, a recent scholar. “The people that come through are always looking to give back to the current scholars and continue to build that legacy.”
Twice a year, current and former beneficiaries, ‘31E classmates’ families, and Michigan Engineering faculty and staff gather on campus to remember the original class members and share updates about the current Scholars.
“You see so many alumni coming back and really interacting and engaging with this new class,” said recent ‘31E Scholar Jason Yu. “It plants this seed in your brain that this alumni network is so strong, and it pushes you to do a similar thing for these future generations of scholars.”
Recent ‘31E Scholar Society President Marcella Zarouk experienced the benefits of the strong alumni network firsthand when she decided to pivot her career plans to explore tech consulting after graduation. ‘31E alumni who were already working in consulting shared their advice, connected her with an interview opportunity and even helped her prepare for the interview.
“Being able to rely on that network when I was first learning about a new sector that I was branching into was really beneficial,” Zarouk said.
Today’s ‘31E beneficiaries are inspired to pay it forward and help others, just as the ‘31E network helped them. In 2024, they started a mentorship program that matches a senior or junior beneficiary with a sophomore or first-year beneficiary, giving younger students someone to turn to for questions about classes, career preparation, or just life at U-M.
The spirit of generosity that inspired the class of 1931 to give back to future engineers has grown into much more than a scholarship program.
“Almost a hundred years later, there’s this thriving community of scholars built upon their contributions and their shared experience,” Vielmetti said . “This community has blossomed into more than I’m sure any of those original graduates could have ever possibly imagined.”