Greenfield Community College Foundation Awards $190,000 in Scholarships

GREENFIELD — The Greenfield Community College (GCC) Foundation awarded 127 scholarships to GCC students at its 57th annual GCC Foundation scholarship awards ceremony. The awards totaled over $190,000, with an additional $100,000 to be distributed in the fall, all made possible by donor support of endowed and direct-funded named scholarships.

The occasion is a time for members of the entire GCC community to come together to celebrate students’ academic achievements. Scholarship donors include private individuals, local businesses, corporations, faculty and staff, and alumni, and many were on hand to present their awards to the recipients. For a complete listing of the scholarships awarded, visit www.gcc.mass.edu/2019scholarships.

Scholarships range in size and eligibility requirements, and include awards to students enrolled in credit-bearing certificate and degree programs, as well as participants in the college’s non-credit workforce-development programs.

The Charlotte Waynelovich Scholarship is one example. Funded by Baystate Health and Baystate Franklin Medical Center in honor of her retirement, it was presented by Wanelovich to a GCC student in the associate degree in nursing program who lives in Franklin County.

“We think of the annual scholarship awards program as the Academy Awards of our year,” said Regina Curtis, GCC’s executive director of Resource Development, who emceed the event. “The sense in the room of pride, of academic accomplishment, of knowing that you are helping change lives or that your life is being changed, is incredibly powerful.”

She added that multiple generations were present. “We saw Susan Renfrew and Debra Gilbert present their parents’ named scholarship, and we saw students come on stage to receive their award with toddlers in tow.”

The GCC Foundation was founded in 1968. Since then, it has worked with those who wish to invest in the dreams of students who work, students who cannot afford tuition, and students who cannot travel to other educational institutions — people for whom higher education is otherwise beyond the borders of their personal geographies.