Penn’s Graduate School of Education received a $3 million donation last week to establish permanent scholarship support for master’s students enrolled in the school’s Education Entrepreneurship program. 

The donation was made by 1995 College graduate Gregory Milken and his wife, EJ Milken, to draw in leaders interested in pursuing educational innovation, according to a Sept. 24 announcement. The Education Entrepreneurship program was launched in 2014 to tackle large challenges facing education by merging the field with lessons on business and entrepreneurship.

“Penn GSE’s Education Entrepreneurship program is helping to develop leaders who will bring fresh ideas and commitment to education,” Gregory Milken wrote in the press release. 

The Milkens chair the Gregory and EJ Milken Foundation, which strives to expand opportunities in education and health through community initiatives. Gregory Milken also serves as a member of the Penn GSE Board of Advisors.

He added that the Milken Endowed Scholarship was inspired by seeing “how an entrepreneurial mindset can unlock opportunities” and “how expanding educational opportunity through innovation and leadership has been instrumental in changing outcomes.”

The master’s program is a one-year initiative that aims to teach students how to develop and implement forward-thinking solutions, using education as the “catalyst for transformative impact.” The curriculum is built for a diverse group of full-time working individuals, and grants students access to resources from GSE and the Wharton School. 

“The Milken family has been a longstanding champion of Penn GSE’s leadership in education entrepreneurship, encouraging our faculty and students to pursue bold ideas that can transform education,” GSE Dean Katharine Strunk wrote in a press release. 

During the program’s 12-month Capstone project, students work with industry leaders and entrepreneurs to develop innovative opportunities that are tailored to their own goals. Its alumni have launched nearly 150 education enterprises and gone on to become leaders in a variety of ways — from founding K-12 schools to directing education policy centers. 

The GSE program also offers a dual-degree option for students pursuing Wharton MBA who want to “tailor their career goals.”

Strunk noted that the Milkens’ “extraordinary” donation will “open doors for talented students to explore innovative and entrepreneurial opportunities regardless of their financial circumstances.”

The donation follows a series of large gifts made to the University. Earlier this month, Penn Medicine received a $50M gift from Stanley Middleman, the CEO of a national mortgage lender, to establish the Middleman Fund and rename a research center. 

Last week, the School of Arts and Sciences received a $22.5M gift from 2008 College graduate Gabriel Gilinski and his wife Stephanie Gilinski to establish new endowed professorships across multiple departments.