Elizabeth Schneider ’87

[Elizabeth Schneider, 2024 Distinguished Alumni]: I was looking for a school that had a degree in computer science, and in the early 80s, not that many schools had computer science programs. And Boise State had their mathematics degree with a computer science emphasis.

From there, I got a graduate degree in computer science from Washington State University, and then went on to work for small companies—doing programming and software engineering—and then eventually joined Intel Corporation in 2000 as a software developer for them.

[Kitty Didion, Executive Director of Corporate and Foundation Partnerships, Boise State University] In addition to her studies, she was in the pep band. She pledged a sorority. She worked at Micron, and she also did campus ministry. So I used to ask Elizabeth, “Did you sleep at college?” Because you obviously were really busy.

[Elizabeth Schneider] Computer science is definitely different than it was in the 80s. We have gone from a very mainframe-centric develop—software development to developing for phones and for small devices such as an Apple Watch. You can go into cybersecurity, you can go into web programming, you can go into embedded programming for the—developing software for the Internet of Things. You can do traditional IT programming. It’s very much a broad degree.

[Kitty Didion] Part of the—the amazing thing to think of: we are now the largest college of engineering in Idaho. Somewhere over 30% of our students are first-generation.

[Joann S. Lighty, Ph.D. Dean, College of Engineering] In 2012, this department graduated about 25 computer science students. They now graduate over 100 B.S. students in computer science. And their enrollment is now over 700 students.

[Kitty Didion] Elizabeth and her husband Eric are totally committed to ensuring that any student who wants to study at Boise State can. Not only do they have two scholarships named for them, but they also—if we’re doing any type of activity, whether it’s our design showcase, where our seniors are doing their projects, or other activities—they’re out there engaging, they’re mentoring, they’re supporting them.

[Joann S. Lighty] I think that impact and her legacy of generosity and dedication to not only STEM, but Bronco Nation, will go on and on.

[Elizabeth Schneider] Since I went to Boise State with 100% scholarships, it’s helpful to pay that forward to society. Boise State enhanced my thinking and values through the variety of coursework that I was able to take, whether it was in economics, whether it was in humanities, whether it was in the arts. All of this makes me a much more well-rounded person today than if I had gone into some sort of job right out of high school.

It’s really a different university and transformed itself into a large research university with many opportunities for its students and to have a student life very much typical of any campus in this country.

I think we have put our money into Boise State and made that investment because we want to see students in Idaho succeed.