Announcing the Enrique Allen Memorial Scholarship
We're honored to announce the Enrique Allen Memorial Scholarship at Stanford University — a living tribute to an extraordinary husband, father, friend, designer, and investor.
This scholarship will support exemplary Stanford students who share Enrique's passion for design, technology, and building a better world. It will honor key aspects of his life and his unwavering commitment to community service.
Stanford shaped Enrique in profound ways. It's where he discovered his passion for design while studying biology and human-computer interaction before earning his master's in management sciences and engineering. During his time there, he actively participated in the Native American Cultural Center, championing indigenous excellence, competed on the men's varsity soccer team, and later returned to teach as an adjunct professor at the d.school, showing students how design could create meaningful social change.
Stanford also became the backdrop for life-changing relationships, including meeting his wife Majo and forming a friendship with Ben Blumenrose that would later blossom into their partnership at Designer Fund.
This scholarship embodies Enrique's boundless ambition and his belief that design could better serve people and the planet. We see it as his final design project, one that will continue to create positive change for generations to come.
If you'd like to be part of this legacy, please contribute here:
One of Enrique's life missions was to give every designer a seat at the startup table—to push them to think bigger, beyond the craft, and in the context of the larger universe. This memorial scholarship was his very last design project (a perpetual pay-it-forward of sorts) and we’re so thrilled to extend his legacy and empower countless curious minds who embody his values and light-bearing purpose.Steve Vassallo
The founding members
This scholarship is made possible by the generosity of these founding members:
Ben & Jocelyn Blumenrose
Steve & Trae Vassallo
Joe Gebbia
Christina & Evan Sharp
Lenny Rachitsky & Michelle Rial
Eric & Jess
Mike Davidson & Chelan Kelly
Elliot Loh
Dan & Kathleen Bomze
Dylan Field
Soleio & Kater
Craig Mod
Didier Hilhorst
Scott Belsky
Malthe Sigurdsson
Paul Holland & Linda Yates
If you're interested in becoming a founding member with a larger contribution, please email hello@designerfund.com. We'd love to discuss how we can honor Enrique's memory together.
We're grateful to Stanford University and the Stanford d.school for their support in helping us establish this scholarship.
Learn more about Enrique and the person he was here.
