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SBCC Foundation’s Spring Forward! Gala to be held Virtually
October 1, 2020 @ 4:00 am PDT
The SBCC Foundation’s second annual Spring Forward! Gala has been reinvented and will be held virtually on October 1st at 4:00 p.m. All are encouraged to enjoy the online celebration of our community’s college, from the comfort of their homes. The event is free, but attendees must register in advance on the Spring Forward! Gala page.
“Like so many of our nonprofit community partners, the SBCC Foundation had to postpone our annual fundraising event this past spring. We are excited to offer this virtual presentation that will feature moving stories from current students and alumni, a welcome from SBCC Superintendent / President Dr. Utpal Goswami, and a live chat with our special guest Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab. Dr. Goldrick-Rab is a renowned researcher and advocate for college access and equity who has written extensively about the struggles facing today’s students,” said Geoff Green, CEO of the SBCC Foundation. The event will also feature an opportunity to give in support of the Foundation’s work.
The SBCC Foundation awards more than $5 million annually for student success programs, scholarships, book grants, emergency funds, and other critical needs of the college and its students. This support, made possible entirely through private donations, provides the margin of excellence that helps make SBCC #1 in the nation. In 2016, the Foundation launched the SBCC Promise, offering all recent, local high school graduates the opportunity to attend SBCC full-time at no cost. The SBCC Promise covers all required fees, books, and supplies for up to two years. To date, more than 4,800 local students have participated in the SBCC Promise.
On March 30, the SBCC Foundation launched the COVID-19 Student Emergency Grant Fund. This was the largest Emergency Grant effort in its history (and one of the largest at any community college in the country), providing over $2 million in assistance to more than 2,300 students. These one-time grants of up to $1,000 per student helped to cover housing, food, childcare, and other essential items, including the technology and internet access necessary for students to continue their education remotely. These funds were distributed early in the pandemic, before state and federal assistance became available.
Herbert & Bui Simon Foundation, the Luria Foundation, and Yardi Systems are Trustee sponsors of the event.
President sponsors are: Coleen Richardson Friedel and Ted Friedel; Glass House Farms and the Farmacy; Montecito Bank & Trust; Santa Barbara Foundation; Scott and Rachil Vincent; and SEI.
Dean sponsors are: Cottage Health; Cox Communications; Hutton-Parker Foundation; eTeamSponsor.com; Griffith & Thornburgh, LLP; Union Bank; Roger Durling & Daniel Launspach; Leslie Meadowcroft-Schipper & Frank Schipper; and the Zegar Family Foundation.
Department Chair sponsor are: Anderson Systems; Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck; Chevron; Fielding Graduate University; Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara; Lauren Katz & Joan and Bob Rothenberg; KBZ Architects; KCRW; Mission Wealth; Northern Trust; Rinaldo & Lalla Brutoco / Omega Point Institute; and Pacific Premiere Bank.
Additional thanks to: California State University, Channel Islands, Santa Barbara Beautiful, and the Santa Barbara Independent.
Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab will join Gala emcee Geoff Green for a conversation about the high cost of college, the role of community colleges, and the importance of addressing student needs in order to make higher education possible. At a time when more jobs than ever require some type of post-secondary degree, her research details the impacts of food and housing insecurity among college students across the country – finding that as many as 1 in 2 students have dealt with food and/or housing insecurity in the past year.
Goldrick-Rab is Professor of Sociology & Medicine at Temple University, and the Founding Director of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice. She is best known for her innovative research on food and housing insecurity in higher education, having led the five largest national studies on the subject, and for her work on making public higher education free. Her latest book, Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream, was featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. The Chronicle of Higher Education calls Sara “a defender of impoverished students and a scholar of their struggles,” an accurate description of her life’s work.