In Oregon, Portland Community College’s (PCC) foundation received its first-ever $1 million cash charitable donation. The gift is from civic leader and philanthropist Anne Naito-Campbell and will help to establish the Naito Family Fund for Opportunity.
The fund will support PCC’s Pathways to Opportunity initiative, which helps low-income individuals and displaced workers connect with community resources while training in high-demand fields.
“Education and training play a vital role in the American Dream,” said Naito-Campbell, whose grandfather Hide Naito moved from a village in Japan to Portland to find the same dream. “When the pandemic hit last spring, I thought of all the people affected who were just like members of my own family – people who had worked hard and struggled to build something, to achieve a dream and watched it slip away as a health crisis became an economic crisis. I thought of the small business owners and workers in industries that seemed to evaporate overnight. I thought to myself, ‘What will they do?’ I dedicated myself in that moment to being part of a solution.”
In honor of the gift, PCC will rename the Southeast Campus library as the Naito Family Library.
PCC also received a $90,000 Talent, Innovation and Equity (TIE) sub-grant from Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission. TIE sub-grants, funded by a 2018 Lumina Foundation grant, support partnerships between Oregon higher education institutions and culturally specific, community-based nonprofit organizations. The goal is to foster postsecondary education success for the state’s underrepresented students of color.
PCC will use its grant to collaborate with Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center and Rosemary Anderson High School to help transition pathways from high school to college through a scholars program designed for students of color, as well as relationship building with students, staff and faculty.
Other colleges that received a TIE grant include Treasure Valley Community College, which was awarded $55,000.
Alabama
Wallace State Community College’s Future Foundation has received a $40,000 grant from the Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham, allowing single mothers in the college’s service area to earn a scholarship in welding or diesel technology.
The college will award the scholarships, valued at $800 per semester for three semesters, on a first-come, first-serve basis to eight women. The grant also will cover tools, equipment and personal protective gear, a tablet with wifi capabilities and graduation expenses. In addition, the funds will pay up to a $1,000 value for learning enrichment activities for students’ children while the mothers are in class.
This is the third year Wallace State has received a grant from the Women’s Fund.
Massachusetts
Springfield Technical Community College’s (STCC’s) Center for Access Services (CAS) received a donation of Always brand feminine hygiene products to help students who are struggling financially through the pandemic.
Always offered to donate several pallets of women’s pads to the STCC food pantry. Stop & Shop, which has made previous food gift card donations worth $13,500, contacted STCC to ask if the college would be interested in the feminine products, said Jose Lopez-Figueroa, director of CAS.
Texas
Paris Junior College (PJC) will use a $10,000 donation from Atmos Energy for early childhood education scholarships.
“This scholarship provides a great opportunity for Paris Junior College early childhood education students,” said PJC President Pam Anglin. “This could make the difference between someone becoming a teacher, or not.”
Wyoming
Laramie County Community College’s Ludden Library and Learning Commons will get a new makerspace thanks to a grant from the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services.
The key objective of the makerspace is to provide students with disabilities the skills to mastery machinery, lead instructional classes, host tours and engage with visitors in a social, informal, creative setting. The $35,000 makerspace will be one of six across the state. The bulk of the funds will cover equipment and staffing expenses.
