Scholarship Reception
HCC Foundation awards 231 scholarships worth nearly $250,000 for 2019-2020.
The Holyoke Community College Foundation has awarded a record 231 scholarships to incoming, current and graduating HCC students for the 2019-2020 academic year, totaling nearly $250,000.
The HCC community will recognize the awardees along with the donors whose generosity makes those scholarships possible at a lunchtime reception on Thursday, May 9, beginning at 11 a.m. in the HCC Bartley Center for Athletics & Recreation.
Keynote speeches will be delivered by HCC alumni donor Gregory S. Schneider '90, co-founder and chairman of 3BL Media in Northampton, and scholarship recipient and graduating art major Catherine Carija '19 of Deerfield, who will be attending Mount Holyoke College in September.
"I had been out of school for 34 years," said Carija. "Lucky for me I found my way to HCC. I was greated so warmly by faculty and staff, and without the generosity of donors and HCC Foundation scholarships –- all that belief in me – I wouldn't be graduating now and going on to Mount Holyoke."
See the full list of 2019-2020 scholarship recipients.
The annual "Scholarship Meet & Greet" provides an opportunity for students to interact with the donors responsible for their awards. Over the years, the HCC Foundation, the nonprofit fundraising arm of the college, has provided nearly $2.8 million in student scholarships while also investing in classroom equipment and technology for select academic and student support programs.
"The community is so invested in the foundation and in the college. It's quite impressive," said Amanda Sbriscia, vice president of Institutional Advancement. "People are passionate about our mission and the work that we do, and that translates into life-changing financial support."
Read about the history of HCC Foundation, "The Foundation at 50," from the Spring 2019 issue of Alumni Connection.
PHOTOS: (Above) Scholarship recipient and graduating art major Catherine Carija '19 of Deerfield will deliver one of the keynote speeches at the May 9 HCC Scholarship Reception. (Thumbnail) HCC president Christina Royal, HCC student and scholarship recipient Elizabeth Busker with donor Melissa Storey at the May 2018 Scholarship Reception.
