More than 430 scholarships were awarded at the ceremony, totaling more than $600,000.

Katie Gleason, executive director of the EC Foundation, said that because so many students received scholarships this semester, the ceremony had to be limited to students receiving aid from private donors.

“The good news is the program has grown so much that it’s massive. The bad news is that it’s become just a huge process to try to award all the student scholarship recipients in one evening,” Gleason said.

Instead, Gleason said the focus of the ceremony was to give students and donors a chance to meet, interaction which Gleason says is “critically important.”

“That process itself has sparked many additional scholarships. There’s one donor in particular that has established two scholarships in memory of her husband who was a long-time faculty member here.

As a result of that engagement with her students, she has established additional scholarships, she has increased the number of recipients and she now extends her scholarships,” Gleason said.

Nancy Tonner, foundation program coordinator, said many scholarships are available to students and the process is simple.

“The students apply online and after they do their applications, they are matched up through our systems by GPA, major or fee waiver needs,” Tonner said.         Gleason said the selection process is done by a committee made up of faculty, staff, donors and the Foundation board of directors.

Tonner said the average scholarship is $1,000 but can range from $500 to $4,000.
In addition to the money awarded at the ceremony, $150,000 to $200,000 in scholarships will be handed out throughout the year.

For many students, this money is imperative to their education.

“It’s absolutely vital,” John Twedt, 35, pre-engineering major, said. “Without these scholarships, there is absolutely no way I could continue my education.”

Twedt received the Northrop Grumman STEM Scholarship and plans to transfer to UC Santa Cruz in the fall.

The budget cuts that have torn across campus recently haven’t affected scholarships, Tonner said. In fact, Gleason said they have increased because of increased support from the community and because of the Osher Scholarship Endowment Fund.

“This is the first year we’re getting a full distribution of our investment in the endowment fund. So we received $139,000. That’s 139 new $1,000 scholarships and we’ll receive that every year in perpetuity,” Gleason said.

Gleason said that faculty, staff and administrators were vital to this scholarship fund.

Through the Employee Giving Campaign, they were able to establish many endowment scholarships, which award money every year that a student attends EC.

Gleason said that the amount of scholarship money available has outnumbered the students applying for aid.

“The only negative to all this is that we actually have some scholarships that are going unawarded this year because we did not have students apply,” Gleason said.

These are mostly major specific scholarships in areas such as dance, theater and humanities, according to Gleason.

The application process for scholarships will begin at the start of fall semester and Gleason encouraged students to apply because scholarships are available for many different qualifications.

“We have merit-based scholarships which tie to the academic performance, but we also have a lot of need-based scholarships. We have scholarships for incoming high school students, current El Camino students and El Camino students who are transferring to continue their education,” Gleason said.