SUN VALLEY, Calif. – It took 50 years but Jerry Kline just got a letterman jacket.

“Although I played football, I wasn’t that good," Kline said. "I was late bloomer. Let me put it that way here.”

Kline graduated from John H. Francis Polytechnic High in 1969, but unlike most of his classmates, the Pacoima native immediately left the area, heading north to attend college.

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“Only 40 of us, 40 out of 800 kids, went directly to a four year school," said Kline.

Walking around campus with a former classmates Dian Singh and Cheryl Shapiro, he noted that a lot has changed. Faculty and staff at the school now put a big emphasis on college readiness with nearly half of the class of 2019 heading to a four-year university, which costs a lot more now than when Kline was a student.  He told seniors that when he went to University of California Berkeley, tuition was $300 a year.  

“Today 20,000, 30, 40, 50,000 dollars a year to go to college, it’s hard to imagine kids in this area being able to afford that without going into huge debt," Kline said.  "And so I hope my contribution will help.”

Kline contributed $1 million to set up a scholarship fund that would give select Poly students $10,000 a year to not just go to college, but go away to college.

“I learned a heck of lot by going away to school," Kline asid. "I learned a huge amount about the world. I learned a huge amount about myself.”

It is an experience Jocelyn Hercules-Amaya would love to have. Her parents were born in El Salvador.

“My mother only went up to third grade," Hercules-Amaya said. "My dad only went to some of high school.”  

She has an older sister who is attending California State University Northridge, but she wants to go further.

“If I got the scholarship then I could probably go study abroad which is what I’ve been wanting to do ever since I was little," Hercules-Amaya said.

Kline didn’t go to college knowing exactly what he wanted to do, but it was his work in the Berkeley Library that led him to form his own company designing systems for libraries around the world.  He won’t be involved in selecting the scholarship recipients, but he hopes they will use the opportunity to find their own path.

“I want them to be exposed to many things, not just the things that are around the Sun Valley area," Kline said, "and hopefully they will find their passion and they can help make the world a better place.”

Maybe in 50 years, the students will come back to change the lives of another generation.