Barstow Community College to receive additional scholarships

California community colleges were given a big gift earlier this week when a private foundation set aside $25 million to fund scholarships.

The Bernard Osher Foundation created the Osher Scholarship Foundation, which will fund $1,000 scholarships to California’s 109 community colleges, including Barstow Community College, said BCC spokeswoman Maureen Stokes. BCC will initially receive five $1,000 scholarships for students who need financial aid. The number of scholarships, Stokes said, is expected to grow as the endowment grows and as BCC student population grows.

“This really broadens our ability to help students,” Stokes said.

Right now, at about 4,000 students, BCC is one of the smaller community colleges in California. Larger schools, like City College of San Francisco and some Los Angeles area schools, get more than five scholarships, said Pat Lanning, the president and CEO of the Foundation for California Community Colleges.

The Bernard Osher Foundation, founded in 1977 and based in San Francisco, has long supported colleges in California, said Jill Scofield, director of media relations for the Foundation for California Community Colleges. Osher is a native of Maine and a businessman. According to the Bernard Osher Foundation, he started as a manager of his family’s hardware and plumbing supplies store in Maine. Later he worked at Oppenheimer & Company in New York before moving to California. In California, he was the founding director of World Savings, which recently merged with Wachovia Corporation.

Scofield said the foundation hoped to promote more funds earmarked for community colleges from private donors.

As part of the endowment, the Osher Foundation will match half of a $50 million fund raising drive planned by the Foundation for California Community Colleges. Lanning said the college foundation is confident they will raise the $50 million in the next three years, bringing the total worth of the Osher endowment to $100 million.

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