Osher Scholarships Changing Lives

In August 2009, the Foundation for California Community Colleges sent $625,000 to local colleges for the first-ever distribution of scholarships from the California Community Colleges Scholarship Endowment. The same amount will be distributed to colleges in January 2010, resulting in $1.25 million in scholarship support for this academic year alone.

These scholarships have had a profound impact on our system's students. The stories told in the hundreds of letters sent to the Foundation have confirmed why this scholarship endowment, and the campaign to build the endowment to $100 million so more students can be supported every year, is so critical.  

For Ira Heinzen, a student at San Joaquin Delta College, his $1,000 Osher Scholarship could not have come at a better time. He was scraping together the dollars needed for educational expenses when he found out about the Osher Scholarship from his college's financial aid office. The scholarship has been pivotal to the completion of his education. "I can tell you right now that I wouldn't be going to school to become an engineer if there weren't charitable groups of people like the Osher Foundation," says the Stockton, California native. 

Amanda Abbott, a student at Bakersfield College, shares a similar story. After losing her job earlier this year, she didn't have the funds for extra educational expenses. She claims that, were it not for the Osher Scholarship, she would not have been able to attend college this semester. Thus, her dream of one day opening a preschool for the deaf would be put off until a later time. Now she is in school, working toward her dream of teaching deaf children while also serving as a role model for her own children, whom she also credits as being the source of her inspiration.

Heinzen and Abbott are not alone. They join at least 1,248 other community college students throughout the state who have been able to continue their education and feel less financial pressure thanks to the Osher Scholarships. As is the intent of the Endowment, the number of scholarships will continue to grow each and every year so that more students like Ira Heinzen and Amanda Abbott will be able to reach their educational goals and make a difference in our world.

Tell us your stories. If you know of students on your campus who have received an Osher Scholarship and have a story to tell, encourage them to submit their information.

For more Osher Scholar profiles, visit www.SupporttheEndowment.org.