$70 million worth of scholarships will be given to California Community Colleges over the next few years by the Osher Foundation, according to an article from the Office of the Governor.

This money will be coming to Skyline College in the form of five $1,000 scholarships over the next few years, which will be managed by the San Mateo Community College Foundation.

“Five $1,000 scholarships is sweet,” said Skyline College President Victoria Morrow. “[the number of students getting scholarships is] growing every year and this will cause it to jump again. One thousand dollars is a big scholarship. We have a few that are bigger.”

ASSC Student President Mauricio Antonio Flores Hernandez said in an e-mail: “I think that it’s an historic and great day for California Community Colleges. I’m so glad that the Bernard Osher Foundation is supporting scholarships for California’s community colleges students. Hopefully, other people and private institutions would like to follow this example and support our community colleges. This generous donation will help many students to pursue their goals and dreams from completing their education.”

Some students thought differently.

“Only five students?” said Skyline Student student DJ Dyse, 23. “Out of all the students going here? Seventy million is a lot of money. I guess it’s a good idea, helping people out. If they want to work harder towards that, then they can be that lucky person.” However, Dyse thought that if people were spending that much money then they should be towards helping struggling students without housing.

According to the information from the governor’s office $25 million will be given immediately, $25 million will be offered on the basis of two-to-one matching funds, and the remaining $20 million will be given to colleges in the CSU and UC system in order to provide Osher scholarships to schools that don’t already have them.

At this school scholarships are usually not used to help students attend, they are used to help students to transfer.

According to Morrow, “Students don’t come [to Skyline] with a scholarship; we help them get one [in order to help them transfer].”

There might be bigger things in other states, but “for public two-year colleges, chances are there’s nothing like it around.”

Facts about the Osher foundation gift, all information acquired from a press release at http://www.cccco.edu/SystemOffice/News/PressReleases/OsherEndowmentPressRelease/tabid/1250/Default.aspx:

“There are more than 2.6 million students enrolled in CCCs, making it the largest higher education system in the nation. Community colleges enroll the state’s lowest income students-full time students have an annual median income of $16,223 and one-fourth of those students have incomes of less than $5,544 per year.

CCCs are also among the most affordable higher education systems. At $20 per unit, student fees at California’s community colleges are currently the lowest in the nation-just 24 percent of the national average.”