Steve Jobs' Widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, Has Become A Noted Philanthropist

Laurene Powell Jobs has earned increased recognition, since her husband's death, pushing agendas in areas such as education, conservation, nutrition and immigration policy.

The fact that Powell Jobs has become the ninth richest women in the world since her husband passed away in 2011 has caused her to become more motivated rather than less, the Epoche Times reports.

Steve Jobs was criticized for not making large public gifts during his life, according to the Inquisitr.  There have been some rumors that he did make major gifts, including one to a hospital, but he did it anonymously.  Since his death, however, it seems as if Powell Jobs has a more public strategy in mind that may help turn around the philanthropic reputation of her late husband.

"She's been mourning for a year and was grieving for five years before that.  Her life was about her family and Steve, but she is now emerging as a potent force on the world stage, and this is only the beginning," said Larry Brilliant, president of the Skoll Global Threats Fund and an old friend of Steve Jobs, according to the New York Times.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Powell Jobs, 49, has become one of Silicon Valley's high-profile political agitators.  "Her profile is rising only of necessity and passion to change the system," said Ron Conway, a startup investor and friend. "I don't think she necessarily wants to be in Washington all the time. I think it is based on the necessity of the issue." Conway described her as "a catalyst, not a lobbyist."

Her political interests were sparked early on, the Wall Street Journal reports.  In the early '90s she started a health-food business that sold sandwiches to health-food stores.  Then, in 1995 she began tutoring low-income students and, three years later she founded a program called, College Track, an after-school program that helps low-income students get into college. The program offers tutoring, extra-curricular activities and leadership classes.

Powell Jobs is a mentor with College Track and Marlene Castro is one of the students that she has mentored, according to the New York Times.  Without the help of her mentor, Ms. Castro said that she might not have become the first person in her family to graduate from college.  Her educational programs have tended to be her main priority and focus, the New York Times reports.

"It's not about getting any public recognition for her giving, it's to help touch and transform individual lives," said Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, a philanthropist and lecturer on philanthropy at Stanford who has been close friends with Ms. Powell Jobs for two decades, according to the New York Times.  "If you total up in your mind all of the philanthropic investments that Laurene has made that the public knows about, that is probably a fraction of 1 percent of what she actually does, and that's the most I can say," she said.

Powell Jobs is looking to make an even greater impact by pushing for legislation that would further her goals, such as the Dream Act, according to the Epoche Times.  The Dream Act is a measure that would let people who arrived in the country as young children become legal citizens.  Powell Jobs has recently cow out publicly in support of the act and she told the Wall Street Journal that she hopes Congress will pass "common-sense immigration reform."

Powell Jobs has been a generous contributor to the Democratic party, the Wall Street Journal reports.  Some of her friends include Bill and Hillary Clinton, who were guests at the Jobs' home in Woodside, California, when their daughter, Chelsea, attended Stanford University nearby, as well as Apple Chief Executive, Tim Cook.

However, her activism has drawn criticism from opponents of an immigration overhaul, who say that she, and other wealthy individuals, have made immigration 'trendy,' according to the Wall Street Journal.  "Immigration is very fashionable, and it's her pet cause," said Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a national organization that campaigns against the legalization of illegal immigrants.