HCC receives $138,000 for student scholarships
Oct 20, 2014
At the October meeting of the Houston Community College Board of Trustees, members of the Sembradores de Amistad were present to announce a permanently endowed scholarship for Hispanic and low-income students pursuing an education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) at HCC.
Since 2007, the Sembradores de Amistad has provided scholarship funds for HCC students, but this donation provides a gift that will live in perpetuity. Their $60,000 was matched with other funds, and an additional $9,000 was raised by community leaders to support the efforts of the group, resulting in a total endowed scholarship of $138,000.
“Since 1976, this organization has been dedicated to raising funds for Hispanic youth to attend college,” said Dr. Zach Hodges, acting vice chancellor of academic affairs. “Today we celebrate their generosity to HCC and our students.”
Additionally, members of the Board of the Society of Petroleum Engineers – Gulf Coast Region were on hand to officially announce the gift of $100,000 in support of RigOne and Petroleum Engineering Technology programs at HCC Northeast College.
In recent years the Society of Petroleum Engineers Gulf Coast Section has contributed to the Petroleum Engineering Technology Scholarship, the Chancellor’s Symposium and the HCC Northeast STEM Fair. This gift is the largest and most significant donation in support of HCC programs and will be the founding gift for the RigOne Simulation Laboratory.
“Houston is not the oil industry capital of the world because we have oil,” said Jeanne Perdue, current chair of SPE Gulf Coast Section. “Houston is the oil industry capital of the world because we have the know-how and a critical mass of it in our community.”
Purdue said that $65,000 was being delivered to support RigOne; $25,000 was going to scholarships and an additional $10,000 was being added to their earlier gift of $20,000 to support the Petroleum Technology programs at HCC Northeast.
The RigOne program will allow students to spend their days primarily outdoors dealing with the elements as they work around cranes and forklifts to learn safe pipe and cargo handling. They will also acquire skills in other areas including materials handling, confined space entry, routine maintenance, hand/power tool skills, basic first aid, firefighting and other safety procedures.
For more information on career training and scholarships available through Houston Community College, please visit www.hccs.edu.