The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara awarded $8.1 million to thousands of Santa Barbara County students Wednesday at the Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunken Gardens.
The scholarships will help students pay for the climbing tuition, fees, and expenses associated with attending college, vocational schools, graduate schools and medical schools.
“It is imperative that we help young people finance and achieve their academic goals,” said Colette Hadley, executive director of the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. “In turn, they will bring their considerable talents and skills to the workforce and become involved citizens.”
The Scholarship Foundation started in 1962 and has given more than $80 million to Santa Barbara County students over the course of the past 50 years, but the more than $8 million this year represents a record for the organization.
In addition to scholarships, the foundation also provides financial aid advising to 27,000 local students and parents every year.
Santa Barbara City College student Patrick Kennedy received the South Coast Business and Technology scholarship for the second time Wednesday afternoon.
“This means it’ll be a lot easier to buy books and I can worry less about financial stuff,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said the $2,000 scholarship goes mostly toward paying the high living costs associated with Santa Barbara, but he hopes to use some of the money to ease the transition from SBCC to studying computer science at UC Santa Barbara.
Ceremony attendee Doug Campbell’s two children benefited from Santa Barbara Foundation scholarships and said it was fitting the scholarships were awarded in the Sunken Gardens of the Santa Barbara Courthouse.
“The courthouse embodies the spirit of the community,” Campbell said. “This ceremony is not only about people being generous but supporting the community. It’s about building a sustaining community.”
— Noozhawk intern Jordon Niedermeier can be reached at jniedermeier@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.