How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Education
- Details
- Written by: Lake County News Reports
UKIAH – Mendocino College Foundation recently presented nearly $123,000 in scholarships to high school and college students planning to continue their education at Mendocino College.
Foundation board members, college trustees, faculty, and staff honored the recipients during the annual scholarships awards ceremony at the college’s Ukiah campus.
This year 85 awards were presented and included a new scholarship that was made possible by a December 2009 donation from retired school teacher Hulda Weger to the foundation.
Tommy Thornhill, chair of the foundation’s scholarship committee congratulated the recipients and concluded the ceremony by asking everyone in attendance to “give a hand to the people who pushed you here,” referring to family, friends and people in their lives who helped and encouraged them to continue their education.
Students receiving the Mendocino College Foundation Academic Excellence Scholarships in the amount of $1,500 each include Sara Adams, Amanda Andersen, Ignacio Ayala-Aguilar, Fujun Bernie, Kelley Boss, Alice Bourdykina-Jelobniouk, Darleen Castanon, Corinne Chaulk, Krisy Fletcher, Christine Hawley, Zachary Hedges, Veronica Hernandez-Clow, Alondra Herrera, Monica Jimenez-Covarrubias, Sarah Johnson, Jane Khoury, Victor Macias, Susan Madison, Ryan McCartney, Cristianne McElhenie, Barbara McKey, Daniel O’Connor, Rachana Panchal, Rachel Parmenter, Connie Patterson, Katharine Payne, Alexandro Reyes Murrillo, Silvia Sanchez, Laura Smith, Karen West, Pamla Wood and Christine Zurcher.
Recipients of the Foundation’s $1,500 Evelyn R. Foote Scholarships are Laura Alexander, Ana Alvarez-Magana, Rebekah Carlson, Monica Ceja, Shelley Christensen, Holly Cochran, Kirsty Cordell, Tarabeth Dufour, Joe Ann Dvornik, Lezlie Elmer, Ivette Fernandez, Jesus Fonseca, Nayley Garcia, April Hildbrand-Ford, Emily Houghton, Nicole Ibrahim, Tawna Jamison, Darlene Klaiber, Jonelle Sornes, Michael Teller, Rolinda Want and Rachelanne Weiss.
Additional award winners include Mariam Ballaho, the Thomas M. Evans Scholarship in the amount of $2,500; Erika Lund, the George R. Szanik Scholarship, $2,500; Rachel Reichard, the Jim Meyer Scholarship, $2,000; Natasha Jelen, the Carl J. Ehmann Scholarship, $2,000; Deidre Hallman, the Hulda and Alfred Weger Scholarship, $1,000; and Vernida Brown, the Mary Oosting Fine Arts Scholarship, $1,000.
For the Nursing Program, recipients include Iana Lima and Ashtin Salisbury, the Karen L. Atkinson Nursing Scholarship, $1,250 each; Erika Lund and Julie Pulse, the Heidi Marie Daniel Nursing Scholarship, $500 each; Anthony Burich, Jacqueline Graumann, and Barbara McKey, the Kathleen Kohn Fetzer Family Foundation Nursing Scholarship, $2,500 each.
Recipients of the Bernard Osher Foundation Scholarships, also $1,000 each, are Scott Diebold, Veva Garcia, Luz Gutierrez, Stacy Holden, and Jennifer Tovar.
Selected to receive the Directors/Trustees Annual Fund Scholarships in the amount of $1,000 each, jointly presented by Mendocino College Board of Trustees President Janet Chaniot and Mendocino College Foundation President Channing Cornell, are students Brian Cahill, Ariana Foster, Megan Gardner, Willow Karlsson-Champion, Ryan Maidrand and Janine Rose.
The foundation’s annual awards are made possible by donations and perpetual scholarship contributions.
For more information about Mendocino College Foundation and ways to contribute, call the foundation office, 707-467-1018.
- Details
- Written by: Editor
SACRAMENTO – Joining the California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott and members of the Board of Governors, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gathered with education leaders, industry chiefs and students in Sacramento on Monday on the 10th anniversary of the Dr. John W. Rice Diversity and Equity Award ceremony.
All were together in support of a common goal – honoring programs and staff that demonstrate a commitment to maintaining and recognizing the important role community colleges play in providing educational opportunities to all Californians.
The annual award promotes diversity at the community colleges and is named for Rice’s late father, a former member of the Board of Governors.
The 2010 award was presented to the Taft College Transition to Independent Living Program that helps integrate disabled students into campus life and to Elaine Moore, a founder of the El Camino College Project Success program that seeks to improve academic performance and graduation rates of inner city students transitioning to college.
“I would like to congratulate the winners from Taft and El Camino College. These wonderful programs foster what my father stood for,” said Condoleezza Rice. “My father taught me that you can come from humble beginnings and do great things if you have an education. Nothing captured his imagination, passion and attention more than the California Community Colleges and the time he served as a member of the Board of Governors.”
Having been born to a Presbyterian pastor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and living through years of segregation and the civil rights era, Dr. Rice was passionate about ensuring the California Community Colleges staff, faculty and student body reflected the diversity of California.
The award, given to individuals or programs, celebrates the profound impact Dr. Rice continues to have on the system. He served on the board from 1992 to 2000.
“Dr. Rice made it his mission to make sure every person who could achieve would get the help they needed to succeed,” said Chancellor Scott. “Today’s award winners are a testament to the fact that Dr. Rice’s ideals live on. He would be proud to see the diversity in our system. Our colleges mirror the diversity of California. After all, we are the college of the open door. ”
In addition to Rice and Scott, other speakers and special guests at the event included Dr. Rice’s widow Mrs. Clara Rice, Board of Governors President Debbie Malumed, President and CEO of the Foundation for California Community Colleges Paul Lanning, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, Sacramento Bee Publisher Cheryl Elbright Dell and Sacramento Business Journal Publisher Joanna Wessman.
Clara Rice, Dr. Rice’s widow, attended the event and warmly recalled the memory of her late husband.
“I called John my ‘gentle giant’ not only because of his size but because of his enormous passion for equity and diversity.” She went on to say, “I’m sure he’s looking down today and smiling as he sees us gathered here to celebrate these programs, people and students with his daughter and me present.”
“Community colleges give all Californians an equal opportunity,” said Board of Governors for the California Community Colleges President Debbie Malumed. “I am proud to be affiliated with the largest system of higher education in the nation. We serve people from all walks of life and make their higher education goals a reality.”
The winners included the Transition to Independent Living Program at Taft College, which exemplifies the ideas of equity and diversity through the integration of students with disabilities into campus life.
It is the only residential community college program in the state that serves students with autism and intellectual disabilities. Students come from communities throughout California with unique demographic backgrounds which also adds to the campus diversity.
The Transition to Independent Living Program has gained national and international recognition based on the successful outcomes these students have achieved upon their completion of the program.
Eighty-nine percent of the students complete the two year program and of those students, 95 percent live independently and 89 percent are employed.
The other winner was Elaine Moore, one of the founders of the Project Success program located at El Camino College.
Project Success is dedicated to increasing the academic performance and graduation rates of inner city students transitioning to college. Her dedication to equity and diversity has helped El Camino College produce higher rates of African-American students who transfer to a California State University or University of California, more than at any other California community college.
Moore succeeds by promoting student centered learning and multicultural faculty, staff and peer mentoring. She is an accomplished faculty member and community leader.
Her efforts and dedication on behalf of Project Success have produced academic and student support services partnerships that have contributed to El Camino College’s ranking as number six among the California Community Colleges that graduate African-American students with associate degrees.
The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation composed of 72 districts and 112 colleges serving 2.89 million students per year. The system is also the largest provider of workforce training in the nation. Nearly 25 percent of all the community college students nationwide are enrolled in a California community college.
- Details
- Written by: Lake County News Reports
LAKE COUNTY – Seventeen fifth-graders in schools throughout the Mendocino-Lake Community College District are receiving awards made possible this year by the Mendocino College Foundation’s Adopt-A-Fifth-Grader Program, College Superintendent/President Kathryn G. Lehner has announced.
Award winners were honored at the schools in ceremonies at the end of the school year. One school will announce its award recipient in August.
Thanks to the generosity of several new donors and a few repeat contributors, the number of achievement awards has increased significantly over the last couple of years, said Lehner.
In Lakeport, student Breanna Perry of Terrace Middle School was selected for the honor, made possible by a donation from the Mendo Lake Credit Union.
Ukiah school students honored this year are Liset Escamilla, Oak Manor Elementary, donor Mendo Lake Credit Union; Jessica Garcia, Grace Hudson Elementary, donor Kathryn G. Lehner; Selena Magana Sutherland, Daniela Cocone, and Katheryn McCoy, Nokomis Elementary, donors Tommy and Ann Thornhill; Harmony Hutchins, River Oak Charter, donor Ed Haynes; Alexis Small, Yokayo Elementary, donors Donna and Ed Berry; and Claudia Kelly, Frank Zeek Elementary, anonymous donor.
Award recipients in other areas of the College district are David Eligio, Anderson Valley Elementary, donor Charles and Wanda Mannon; Jely Espinoza, Redwood Valley Elementary, donors Christy and Dave Scollin; Roselyn Alvarez, Hopland Elementary, donor Wade and Mary Lou Koeninger; Nona Hope Delaine Hoaglen, Round Valley Elementary, Covelo, donor Mendo Lake Credit Union; and Isabel Guiterrez, Natalee Lopes, and Tia Lynn Grant, Blosser Lane Elementary, Willits, donors Tom Herman, Claudia Smith Hill and the Rotary Club of Willits.
The recipient from St. Mary of the Angels School in Ukiah (donor Paul Conrado) will be announced in August.
The foundation’s program, previously known as “Adopt-A-School Achievement Awards,” is in its third year.
The first award was given at Hopland Elementary School, made available through the generosity of Wade and Mary Lou Koeninger, who started the program on their own at the Hopland school 17 years ago. They have provided sponsorship funding for a student honoree each year.
Contributors sponsor fifth-graders at elementary schools within the college district by donating $700 per student. The $700 gift is invested and, based on an average 7 percent return per year, grows to over $1,000 by the time the recipient graduates from high school, allowing for a maximum $1,000 scholarship.
The award winners are chosen in a manner designated by the students' schools. At the end of the school year, each student receives $25 and a certificate as the recipient of the award. Upon graduation from high school, the student receives a $500 cash incentive or a $1,000 scholarship if he or she elects to attend Mendocino College.
For each of the three students receiving awards made possible by donations from the Mendo Lake Credit Union this year, the credit union matched the student’s $25 prize with an offer to open an MLCU savings account with the contribution of an additional $25, according to the credit union’s chief executive officer, Richard Cooper, who is a member of the foundation’s board of directors.
Donations are tax-deductible. Anyone interested in sponsoring one or more fifth-graders may make a $700 donation per student. Donors may designate a school preference or allow the foundation to choose. Donations to sponsor a school in perpetuity are also accepted.
The Mendocino College Foundation seeks to receive contributions for sponsoring at least one fifth-grader from every elementary school within the Mendocino-Lake Community College District.
For more information about the program or to make a donation, call the foundation office at 707-467-1018.
Additional information is available on the foundation’s Web site, http://foundation.mendocino.edu.
- Details
- Written by: Tony Marchese
Scholarship money comes from interest income, fundraisers and donations.
Application for the scholarships is open to graduating Lake County high school students who will be enrolling in a college or vocational school.
The student must carry at least 12 units and have a 3.0 or better cumulative GPA.
Academic and extracurricular activities are taken into consideration, however the scholarship is primarily based on the quality of a 250 to 750-word essay based on an aspect of Lake County history.
Exceptional essay submissions may be published in “The Pomo Bulletin” for our members to read.
This year the scholarship selection committee received 11 applications, of which two were from Clear Lake High School, five were from Kelseyville High School, three were from Lower Lake High School and one was from Middletown High School.
Katherine Murphy from Kelseyville and Andrea White from Lower Lake were each awarded a $500 scholarship for submitting remarkable essays, as well as their impressive achievements in and out of school.
Murphy has a cumulative grade point average of 4.15. Her extracurricular activities were in athletics, music and outside activities.
Her winning essay is titled “The History of Tourism in Beautiful Lake County.” She plans to major in medicine at the University of California, Davis, and thereafter attend medical school.
Andrea White has a total grade point average of 4.11, placing her at the top of her graduating class.
Her extracurricular activities included varsity sports, community work and student activities. Her award-winning essay is titled “Lake County, A Commemoration of 2 Million Years of Bountiful History.”
White will attend the University of Puget Sound and plans to become an oral/maxillary surgeon.
Many thanks go to the scholarship selection committee and to the scholarship applicants for their essay submissions.