Connecticut Community Foundation Awards $900,000 in College Scholarships
College will be more affordable for 400 students residing in Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills thanks to scholarships awarded by Connecticut Community Foundation for the 2019-20 academic year. The awards total more than $900,000 and are for students attending two-year and four-year schools across the country. Later this year, students at Naugatuck Valley Community College and Central Connecticut State University will also receive scholarships from the Foundation; those institutions will determine and direct those scholarships to worthy students, many of whom are “non-traditional”—at different stages of life and careers. Julie Loughran, president and CEO of Connecticut Community Foundation, said, “The future is bright for Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills in light of the talents, ambitions and community service demonstrated by these exceptional student scholars. Through these scholarships, our donors have opened doors of opportunity to local students and the impact is beyond measure.” For decades, donors have worked with the Foundation to establish more than 140 college scholarship funds to benefit area students. Among the largest scholarship providers in Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills, the Foundation has made nearly 6,000 awards from these funds—totaling over $11 million—to area students over the past twenty years. Victoria Guillet of Beacon Falls is the recipient of two scholarships from the Foundation for the 2019-20 academic year, awarded through the Joseph A. and Kyungsook K. Petrahai Scholarship Fund and the Heather Lo-Ann Rybinski Memorial Scholarship Fund. Guillet plans to study nursing at Southern Connecticut State University in the fall. She said, “It’s meaningful to me to know the scholarships I received were memorial scholarships and that people gave those scholarships and created those funds in memory of someone they loved—whether it be a friend or a family member. The weight of that is not lost on me and I’m really grateful.” View the complete list of students by town who have been awarded scholarships by Connecticut Community Foundation for the 2019-20 academic year. View videos of four student scholars. Learn more about establishing a scholarship fund at the Foundation.
