The Santa Barbara City College Foundation’s fifth annual Spring Forward! Gala was held on Saturday under a beautifully lit tent on the West Campus’s Great Meadow, attracting a sold-out crowd of 300 guests.
Funds raised support the foundation’s initiatives, notably the SBCC Promise Program, which began in 2016 and has benefitted more than 7,000 students to date. The class of 2024 is set to be the largest cohort ever, with nearly 2,000 students.
The event also marked the first for the foundation’s new CEO, Bobbi Abram, on what was just her fourth day on the job. While Abram is new to the role, she is not new to the work.
“Having recently led the second-largest community college foundation in the state (Pasadena City College), I have been following SBCC for a long time, and I have especially been following the success of the Promise Program,” Abram said. “I don’t think you even realize how much attention this program gets across the state from every other community college foundation. You are No. 1 at what you do, and I can assure you that I know what needs to happen to keep SBCC No. 1.”
The SBCC Promise Program is, in fact, one of the most comprehensive Promise initiatives in the country, covering all required tuition, fees, textbooks and supplies for two years.
“Our faculty and staff meet students where they are and support them to reach heights they never imagined,” foundation board president Madeleine Jacobson said. “That’s where we (the SBCC Foundation) come in — helping to fund extra efforts, innovative programs, tutoring, mentoring, scholarships, emergency funds, extended library hours and summer bridge programs, which all require resources beyond the college’s annual funding.”
SBCC Promise student Alondra Hernandez will graduate this spring and is deciding whether to attend UCSB, UC Berkeley, UCLA or USC. In sharing her experience, Hernandez said it’s because of her supportive family and generous donors that she even has college options available to her.
“Realistically, I should have grown up in Mexico, most likely had my own family by now and still be living in poverty,” Hernandez said. “It’s all because of the SBCC Promise Program that students like me, who are first-generation and low-income, get to attend college and further explore their interests.
“With two years of costs fully covered, I can take a range of classes, study whatever interests me, and be taught by professors who truly care about my education.”
Ernesto Paredes, executive director of Easy Lift Transportation, served as auctioneer and also noted that his college career started at SBCC, as did his mother’s. Paredes shared the story of his late mother, who graduated from UCSB, where she also earned a teaching credential, then returned in a compelling full circle moment, to teach Spanish at SBCC. Paredes, who went on to graduate from USC, credited the faculty at SBCC as the “best professors in the world.”
Live auction items included SBCC gourmet dining experiences, private cooking classes compliments of SBCC Culinary Arts and the School of Extended Learning, an SBCC theater and wine reception, and a Santa Barbara International Film Festival package that its CEO, Roger Durling, helped auction.
Durling, who has taught a film class at SBCC for the past 20 years, said it’s the most rewarding work he’s done.
“It’s such a joy to be on campus,” he said, “and this is a gem of a program in our local community.”
Local officials and educators in attendance included Esmeralda Estrada from Congressman Salud Carbajal’s office, Stephanie Ramírez Zárate from state Sen. Monique Limón’s office, Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse, Santa Barbara City Councilman Oscar Gutierrez, Santa Barbara Unified School District Superintendent Hilda Maldonado, Santa Barbara school board members Wendy Sims-Moten, Gabe Escobedo and William Banning, Goleta Unified school board members Emily Zacarias and Ethan Bertrand, and SBCC board trustees Jonathan Abboud (president), Robert Miller, Ellen Stoddard and Anna Everett.
