Talbert family gift to UCR creates scholarship for students from disadvantaged backgrounds
It was on a deserted South Dakota highway that the two small figures came into view.
"Hitchhikers," said Charles Talbert, as he turned to his wife Kathy. "What do you think?"
With 10 children—five of their own and five foster kids—already settled in the back of their 15-seater passenger van, you could have understood if the couple drove by. But that's not the Talberts. So the two hitchhikers, young Indigenous teens, piled into the van, where they dug into snacks and sodas before being safely delivered to their destination a few hours later.
The hitchhikers are two of hundreds of young people the Talberts have helped as foster parents, community and church volunteers, and through Kathy's work as an advocate for children in the courts system. Now they're giving back in a different way: by making a planned gift to UC Riverside that will help students from disadvantaged backgrounds complete an undergraduate or graduate degree in statistics.
Talbert, a director for an accounting firm in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region, earned a bachelor's from USC followed by a master's degree from UC Riverside in 1982. His education paved the way for a 40-year career as an actuary for top accounting firms, including KPMG and Deloitte & Touche, and a statistics instructor at a community college for over 15 years.
His college education was made possible because of a USC program that helped students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds attend college.
"That initiative enabled me to prove to myself and my family that I was not just smart enough to go to college but to graduate. Without that, I don't know where I would be today," said Charles, a seventh generation Native Californian who grew up in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County. "I look at this gift to UCR as providing a pathway for students to be able to get to where I am."
At UCR, Charles became involved with the Native American Student Association, teaming up with Luke Madrigal, chair of the program, to help to establish the Medicine Ways Conference and tutor students at the Sherman Indian High School in Riverside.
After graduating, he got a job at the U.S. Census Bureau in Washington D.C., where he met Kathy, who grew up in in the Upper Sioux Community of Granite Falls, Minnesota. Charles' job took them to Los Angeles, where they lived for five years, adding two children to three that Kathy brought from her previous marriage. In 1989, Kathy finally persuaded Charles to move to her home state.
"Kathy and the kids had gone ahead of me, and when I arrived in Minnesota it was the middle of December," Charles said. "As soon as we got out of the airport, she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the car. She knew that otherwise I was going to turn around and get on the next plane back to LA."
Once settled in Minnesota, in a larger house with more bedrooms, Charles and Kathy found themselves revisiting an idea they'd talked about when they first met—becoming foster parents. While they were both on-board with the decision, Charles said Kathy did most of the caregiving while he focused on his actuarial career.
"I was studying to be an actuary and working long hours, so it was all Kathy," Charles said.
The couple's 14-year commitment to foster parenting began with five-and-a-half years taking care of five children who became "part of the family." Kathy enrolled them in soccer and karate alongside their own kids, and cross-country road trips enabled them to experience Yellowstone National Park, views of NYC from the top of the Empire State Building, and, yes, picking up the two hitchhikers.
For the following nine years, the family offered short-term shelter care to more than 300 children in crisis, many of whom had suffered severe abuse or neglect.
"My goal was for them to know that there is hope for a normal life," Kathy said. Because their lives were so abnormal, and people were drinking and fighting, I wanted them to a see a stable home so when they grow up they would think 'I can do this'."
Kathy eventually traded her role as full-time foster parent for a job as an Indian Child Welfare Act Guardian ad Litem out of Minneapolis. She retired in 2020.
With estate planning in mind, the Talberts turned their attention to helping in a different way. Their $40,000 bequest to UCR will create the Talbert Family Endowed Scholarship, which will provide support to undergraduate or graduate students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are majoring in statistics, or another field close to the couple's hearts, including mathematics, psychology, education, pre-medicine or medicine.
Charles, who kept a close connection to UCR through his friendship with Madrigal and periodic visits to campus, said he is impressed with UCR's efforts to support Indigenous and people of color and first-generation students.
"I know firsthand that being a first-generation student from a disadvantaged background is difficult, no matter how you slice it," Charles said. "We've always had a heart to help people from families who are struggling to make ends meet and I hope this gift will help with that."
