Jesuit Values
Adherence to Catholic, Jesuit, and Italian values
John A. Sobrato is crucial to our exhibit and understanding of the Italian-American experience because his life work reflects Jesuit and Italian values, which he learned through his Jesuit education and now transfers to others. For instance, Sobrato involves his family in everything he does, keeping the family close and ensuring they learn to follow Jesuit values. Inside Philanthropy remarks, "Today, John A. Sobrato owns only 40% of his company, and his children and grandchildren own about 60%. And because the whole family is in business together, he also believes that the whole family should be in philanthropy together" (Adeniji). As the stats indicate, Sobrato's family plays a pivotal role in his life and organization. John A. married his wife, Susan Sobrato, in 1960, the same year he graduated from SCU (Joint Venture Silicon Valley). Sue is involved in nearly all of John A. Sobrato's ventures. John's son, John Michael Sobrato, serves as the Board Chair Emeritus of the Sobrato Organization due to his Father's Italian values of mentorship, family, and legacy (Joint Venture Silicon Valley). The current CEO of the Sobrato Organization is John's son-in-law, Matt Sonsini.
Sobrato remarked about his desire to include his family in philanthropy, "We call it the Sobrato Family Foundation for a reason. We want all the members of the family to be engaged in a position where they can collaborate with each other" (BayAreaCouncil). Sobrato ensures that his family is involved in philanthropy more than any other of Sobrato's ventures because he wants to instill Jesuit values of charity and generosity into his family's future generations. Sobrato remarks in an interview with Philanthropy Roundtable, "It's our hope that our grandchildren in future generations believe in god; that's number one. And with that comes integrity, dealing ethically and honestly with everyone. I was also taught by the Jesuits at Bellarmine High School about being a man for others. At Santa Clara, I was taught the three Cs of competence, conscience, and compassion, and I think that's a really important tagline" (Philanthropy Roundtable). Sobrato, to this day, adheres to and spreads the Jesuit values he learned in his education.
Most importantly, to successfully pass on the Catholic values of ethics and generosity to the future generations of his family, Sobrato wants to make sure his family isn't shielded from worldwide issues due to their wealth. Sobrato says, "My family, those that could, we flew to Africa, spent two days on Mercy ships in Senegal. It was very enlightening to be on the ship seeing these poor people have operations. We saw one woman who had her bandages removed after an accident. That was really touching. I took my daughter Lisa and one of our staff members on a trip that was arranged for us by Catholic Relief Services. We spent time in some of the urban areas of San Salvador and Guatemala. We're learning about what we can do in other parts of the world to make a difference" (Philanthropy Roundtable). Sobrato wants to get his family, who are privileged from their wealth, to realize that there are inequalities worldwide that need to be dealt with as a moral obligation.
Through its philanthropy work and core mission, Sobrato and the Sobrato Family Foundation continue Jesuit values in the family lineage, making sure the future generations of Sobratos are "men and women for others." For the same reason, Sobrato insists that his children and grandchildren study at SCU to learn the core Jesuit values that were so important to him in his life.
People often praise John A. Sobrato because he was involved in philanthropy before the idea of "corporate responsibility" existed (Philanthropy Roundtable). Sobrato entered philanthropy early due to his Catholic and Jesuit values.
One of the Sobrato family's most significant contributions to SCU was their $100 million donation in 2017 to create the Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation (SCDI), a 300,000-square-foot building for STEM and multidisciplinary education (Santa Clara University). The building is the largest in Santa Clara's 166-year history. The facility is state-of-the-art and supports the Jesuit goals of teaching the natural sciences, exploration, curiosity, helping others, and solving the world's problems through innovation. The multidisciplinary approaches taught within SCDI classrooms reflect the Jesuit value of Cura Personalis, or "care for the entire person," a pillar of Jesuit education. Sobrato remarks, "This gift is the largest in our family's history. We are especially pleased to support the University's new strategic vision and the transformational STEM initiative at its core. The state-of-the-art, 300,000-square-foot, undergraduate-focused complex will allow for integrating the various engineering departments with the natural science disciplines of the College of Arts and Sciences to address—with Jesuit values—some of the world's most pressing problems" (qtd. in Santa Clara University). The former president of SCU, Michael Engh, S.J., said, "We are honored and blessed by John and Susan Sobrato's unwavering support for Santa Clara University for the past six decades…This historic gift will accelerate our vision of leveraging our academic excellence, Jesuit values, and Silicon Valley relationships to forge imaginative solutions to the urgent challenges we face" (Santa Clara University). As Engh notes, the building is a direct investment from Sobrato into Jesuit education and the amplification of Jesuit values in California and in America. With Sobrato's donation, SCU will produce students versed in multiple disciplines with a complete and holistic Jesuit approach, ready to solve the world's most pressing problems and make the world a better place.
The Sobrato organization has also donated millions to support students with scholarships, especially those studying business, technology, and real estate. In 2022, the Sobrato Organization donated $9 million to create the Sobrato Family Scholarship Endowment, which Sobrato created to provide four-year scholarships to Cristo Rey Jesuit High School students in the Bay Area (Santa Clara University). The endowment includes Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School, Cristo Rey De La Salle East Bay High School Oakland, and ICA Cristo Rey Academy in San Francisco (Santa Clara University). The scholarships provide opportunities to deserving students and foster diversity by creating a more diverse campus with a variety of geographic and financial backgrounds. Most importantly, the scholarships emphasize the Jesuit value of education for social justice by promoting social mobility and equality via access to education. The Scholarship Endowment also reflects Italian values of supporting one's community, as the Sobrato Organization treats the SCU community like family and supports the school like they do their own famiglia.
SCDI is not the only Sobrato-funded facility at SCU. The Sobrato Organization has donated $20 million to the SCU Harrington Learning Commons, funded Sobrato Residence Hall, and supported the creation of the Sobrato Technology Center, which gives students access to the newest technology resources and allows them to work on projects requiring advanced software tools (Adeniji). Outside of SCU, Sobrato also treats the San Fransisco Bay Area community like an extension of his famiglia. San Fransisco Bay Area donations from the Sobrato family include $20 million to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, $10 million to Bellarmine College Preparatory High School, $5 million to every Valley Medical Center and National Hispanic University, and $1.25 million to help build Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School (Santa Clara University). Sobrato's generous investments foster a more prosperous San Francisco Bay Area community – they are the result of not only Sobrato's gratitude for the San Francisco Bay Area and his feeling of obligation to give back but also his Italian values of supporting family first, as many charities today focus on foreign issues in the global South. Sobrato says how Jesuit connections influenced his decision to build the new Cristo Rey high school, "I was at a friend's winery in Napa five years ago, having a glass of wine and talking to the fellow next to me. He said he was on the board of Cristo Rey in Denver. I asked him, "What's Cristo Rey?" I had no idea. He explained the model, and I thought we ought to have one of those in San Jose, so I reached out and started working on it. We created a founder's circle of about a dozen people, had Father Foley come out to make a presentation, and did our best to raise money. Then I told Bishop P. J. McGrath that I wanted to start a local Cristo Rey school but needed a location. He told me about a school the diocese closed five years ago because the families in the neighborhood couldn't afford the tuition. The building was vacant except for periodic catechism classes. I took a look, and it was a very small site, but I thought we could make it work. We started with 130 students. Now we have 470. We just put up two additional buildings on campus, after raising $25 million" (Philanthropy Roundtable). Sobrato's conversation with his friend in Napa shows how he is still highly in touch with the Italian, Catholic, and Jesuit values he acquired through his childhood and education and how they come into play with his philanthropy. Sobrato could have funded any schools he wanted to, but he especially focused on funding schools that teach Jesuit values, which he understands and appreciates due to his Jesuit education.
One of the Sobrato Organization's most important Bay Area programs is the Sobrato Early Academic Language Program, or SEAL, which helps students from preschool through the 3d grade in 87 schools and 16 California districts comprehensively learn English in their early education to help them succeed later in their lives (Santa Clara University). Not only does the SEAL program reflect Sobratos' Jesuit values of being a man for others and taking care of his community, but it also reflects how his upbringing by immigrant parents shapes the way he sees the world and makes him more sympathetic to those who struggle with assimilating into American culture. In the famous Italian novelist John Fante's My Father's God, the main character's father finds it hard to believe that the local priest doesn't speak Italian. He says, "The pope speaks Italian, the cardinals, they speak Italian. The saints speak Italian. Even God speaks Italian. But you, Father Bruno Ramponi, don't speak Italian" (Fante 197). Though Sobrato's parents were likely proficient in English, given their success in America, it was likely hard for them to shift from the lifestyles they took for granted in Italy. Thus, they may have shared the same frustrations as the archetypal father in Fante's short story. Having likely witnessed similar assimilation challenges with his parents, Sobrato was more willing to help individuals who struggled to assimilate linguistically into America.
For his business acumen and philanthropy, Sobrato has deservingly won numerous awards. Joint Venture Silicon Valley awarded him the David Packard Award for Civic Entrepreneurship in 2012, and in 2015, John and his wife received the Silicon Valley Leadership Group's Spirit of Silicon Valley Lifetime Achievement Award (Sobrato Organization). Sobrato also serves on many boards to give back to and oversee his money at work and support the Bay Area community. He is the Vice Chair at the NHU Foundation and Latino College Preparatory Academy, the Co-Chair at the Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School, the Santa Clara County Director of the Bay Area Council, the Regent Emeritus of Bellarmine College Preparatory, the Director Emeritus of the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, the Real Estate Trust Co-Chair of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and a member of Parents Helping Parents, Ravenswood Family Health Center, and Joint Venture Silicon Valley (Sobrato Organization, Alaban, Philanthropy Roundtable). By serving his community in many ways, Sobrato exemplifies the Jesuit values of being a "man for others." He is a father and a benefactor to the San Francisco Bay Area, an extension of his famiglia.
