Family of Joanne Rae Kline

The Donna S. Kline Scholarship Endowment in Creative Arts In Memory of Joanne Rae Kline was established to help strengthen and permanently support the Music Department at San Francisco State University. The Sylvan and Donna Kline Guardian Scholars Scholarship Endowment in Memory of Joanne Rae Kline was established to strengthen and permanently support SF State’s Guardian Scholars Program, with its unique mission and purpose of supporting the needs of college-bound students who are transitioning out of the foster care system. The Klines want to help ensure the future success of the program and permanently support its goals of graduating and empowering foster youth to become self-supporting adults, conscious community leaders, role models and competent professionals in their fields of interest.

These awards were created to honor the memory of Joanne Rae Kline, pictured above, the daughter of Sylvan and Donna Kline, who empowered others through her advocacy of education. Joanne chose a career path that taught others to believe in themselves, and to reach for higher goals through education. The US Department of Health and Human Services contracted the educational software company Leapfrog Incorporated, to produce an educational book teaching basic healthcare practices to Afghani woman. Leapfrog asked Joanne to lead the project as an Executive Producer for the company, and accompanied her employer in Washington DC to present the project. Fluent in Spanish, Joanne’s quest also led her to serve in Bolivia, where she taught local teachers under the auspices of Save the Children Foundation to use computers more effectively. Joanne Rae Kline’s life embodied the spirit of empowerment and generosity to others which parallels the spirit embodied in the creation of the Donna S. Kline Scholarship Endowment in Creative Arts and the Sylvan and Donna Kline Guardian Scholars Scholarship Endowment in her memory.