WCCF holds 50th anniversary event

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Photos & captions in bj120219 west. artwork

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The Westchester Community College Foundation (WCCF) celebrated its 50^th anniversary with a Nov. 13 gala at Tappan Hill in Tarrytown. Since its founding in 1969, WCCF has raised more than $100 million to benefit the school and its students and provided more than $24 million in scholarships.

“We”™ve had a lot of wonderful relationship with the business community,” Eve Larner, WCCF”™s executive director, told the Business Journal. “A lot of businesses want to partner with us because they see their future employees being trained here at the college. They know that the college”™s students usually wind up living here in Westchester and the strength of the county lies in an educated Westchester.”

Larner had a progress report on a WCCF effort known as “Pathways: The Campaign for Student Success.” She said, “This is a $50 million campaign, the largest in the foundation”™s history and we”™re delighted to announce that we”™ve raised $43 million of that $50 million goal already. We began the campaign in 2013 and will conclude in 2021 to coincide with the college”™s 75^th anniversary.” Larner said it”™s possible that they may exceed the $50 million goal. “The funds are already being utilized toward student scholarships, toward programs that support student enrollment, retention and completion and also toward some physical projects on campus.”

Debbie Raizes and Ruth Suzman, co-chairs of the Pathways Campaign, were among those on the speakers”™ program at the anniversary celebration. Others included: Susan Yubas, chair of the foundation”™s board of directors; Joanne Landau, board president; Betsy Stern, WCCF board member and a college trustee; Harry Phillips, secretary of the foundation; and Belinda Miles, president of WCC.

While WCCF in the past raised funds to double the size of the library and construct the Gateway Center with 70,000 square feet of modern an environmentally-friendly classrooms and student spaces, not all of what WCCF does is measured in dollars and cents. It was responsible for the creation of the Virginia Marx Children”™s Center on the college”™s main campus in Valhalla, which provides care for the preschool children of students and staff. It also started and now manages the college”™s Volunteer Corps, which facilitates volunteering, and also manages the Alumni Association and the Native Plant Center.

“The foundation now bestows about $2 million in student scholarships every year,” Larner said. She said that nearly 20,000 students have benefitted from a foundation scholarship since it was founded. “The individuals, corporations and foundations that support the Westchester Community College Foundation and make an education possible for our students really have the gratitude of our students because they are making an incredible difference and a little bit goes a long way. Some students are struggling with not just the need to make tuition but also the other costs of attending college. Some struggle with food insecurity, transportation costs and others may have struggles at home supporting a family.”

A featured speaker at the anniversary event was Wellington Mackey, a Westchester Community College (WCC) alumni who now is attending Yale Law School. He immigrated to the U.S. from the Bahamas at age 23, could not make ends meet in New York City and wound up sleeping on park benches or in subway cars. In 2012, he received a green card enabling him to work in the U.S. legally, received  scholarships to attend WCC and study abroad at Cambridge University for a semester, and was accepted to Yale. He spoke about how WCC enables students such as him to realize their dreams.

“The significance was the transformative impact of the foundations”™ support on his life,” Larner said of Mackey”™s experience. “He is an incredibly driven and intelligent individual,” she said. “It”™s actually a story we hear a lot. That is why our donors find it so compelling to work with us. Many students report stories of transformation, maybe not quite as dramatic as Wellington”™s.” Larner said that what makes WCCF unique is its “ability to really make a difference in a student”™s life and the ability to attend college versus having no access to higher education at all.”

While WCC is affordable when compared with many other colleges, with tuition at about $4,600 a year, transportation, books and living expenses can make the total bill add up to an estimated $16,000 a year. “Just through scholarships alone, this year we are assisting about 1,200 students and the number of students that are being touched by foundation-funded programs is far more than that,” Larner said.