Supporters give $1M to Dodge College

Adrienne Brennan, a Chapman alumna and longtime member and current president-elect of the Fashionable Women of Chapman University support group, and her son Patrick Brennan have given $1 million to Dodge College of Film and Media Arts to fund the completion of senior students’ film projects.  Adrienne, whose parents brought her to the U.S. from Ireland as a child, credits her education for what she has become today: a successful real estate executive in Newport Beach.  “We basically had nothing,” she said of her childhood.  She worked on the L.A. police force before completing her college degree at Chapman and moving into the real estate field.  Today, her son Patrick is a sophomore and baseball star at the University of Pennsylvania, and you can hear a mom’s pride in her voice as she speaks of his accomplishments.  “I wanted Patrick to know the joy of philanthropy, and that’s why we de

cided to give this gift together,” she told us.   “We discussed it and we decided together where our gift could best be used.”  Senior film projects can often cost upwards of $10

,000 to $20,000 to complete, she said, so the film project completion fund is

an important way to assist these students  and help them, in turn, embark on successful careers after Chapman.  “Patrick and I are very passionate about educatio

n and we have made a commitment to support educational causes.”  We can tell that philanthropy will always be an important part of Patrick’s life due to his mom’s great example!