www.wccnet.edu

Project Name:

Scholarship Endowment for Women in Technology

Purpose of Grant:

To fund scholarships for female students at Washtenaw Community College who are pursuing an education in a technology related field.

Executive Summary:

The WCC Foundation serves the students, faculty and staff of Washtenaw Community College.  There were over 28,000 students that attended WCC last year.  Half of the students enrolled in credit classes were under the age of 25, although the average age was 28.  Twenty-four percent of WCC’s students represent a minority, which is a larger percentage of minorities than present in the general population of Washtenaw County.  Nearly one-third of WCC’s half-time to full-time students receive financial assistance through the Federal government, indicating that there is a substantial level of need...  The Foundation’s stakeholders comprise the 20 members of our Board and our donors.  Since the College is a public institution that receives a significant portion of its revenue from the local tax base, the population of Washtenaw County is considered a key stakeholder.

One of the primary missions of the WCC Foundation is to secure and administer need-based scholarships for students.  Last year, the Foundation funded more than 300 requests for scholarships, totaling over $300,000.  Recently, the amount of requests has exceeded the amount available to award through our existing endowments.  The need is great, and because so many of our applicants and recipients are women, an endowment to support them is appropriate.  Because our Division of Business and Computer Technology has consistently attracted the largest percentage of enrollment among our students over the past several years, we anticipate that there will be many requests for assistance from women in these programs.  As mentioned previously, 73% of our scholarship applicants this term were women.  They constitute our target audience for this scholarship because there appears to be an overwhelming need among hem for financial assistance.