The gift establishes an endowment to award ten $2,500 scholarships each year, in perpetuity, to students from California community colleges. HSU’s first Osher Scholars will be selected for the 2013-14 academic year.
“This is an extraordinary commitment, and we are so grateful,” said HSU President Rollin Richmond. “We know there are many deserving students who need financial help so that they can complete their four-year degrees. This will make a real difference.”
“Once the Foundation began its endowed scholarship program for California’s community colleges, we became ever more aware of the challenges facing students who wanted to continue their education and earn a baccalaureate degree,” noted Mary Bitterman, Foundation president. “We have been grateful to Humboldt State University for excellent stewardship of its Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and we are confident that HSU’s administration of this new endowment gift will benefit generations of students to come.”
This is the second major endowment at Humboldt State created by a gift from The Bernard Osher Foundation. The first was a $1 million endowment for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on campus. The HSU OLLI program, one of 116 at universities nationwide, offers classes for those 50 and over.
The Bernard Osher Foundation, headquartered in San Francisco, was founded in 1977 by Bernard Osher, a respected businessman and community leader. The Foundation seeks to improve quality of life through support for higher education and the arts.
The Foundation provides scholarship funding to colleges and universities across the nation, with special attention to re-entry students. It also supports a national lifelong learning network for seasoned adults, The Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes, and it benefits programs in integrative medicine in the United States and Sweden. In addition, the Foundation funds an array of performing arts organizations, museums and educational programs in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Mr. Osher’s native state of Maine.
To be eligible for the new scholarships, students must transfer from a California community college and be entering, or have entered, HSU at the junior level or above. They must also demonstrate both financial need and academic promise.
Students will be able to apply for the scholarship through the HSU Financial Aid Office’s website later in the fall semester.