We Make Post-Secondary Education And Certifications Accessible And Affordable.
Annual Report Celebrates Accomplishments And Looks Towards Future.
The Foundation’s 2020/2021 annual report Adapting, Collaborating and Looking Ahead is now available.This year we celebrate coming together on behalf of Maricopa Community College students, to ensure that the opportunity for an accessible and affordable education is available to all.The report features stories focusing on the incredible support we’ve received and highlights instances in which we successfully readjusted our focus to adapt to the ever changing needs our students faced this past year. Together, we paved the way for our District to become an invaluable resource for our community and acknowledged and addressed the needs of our local business and industry partners.
Read the interactive report, here.
Chancellor Delivers Annual State Of The District
Dr. Steven R. Gonzales, Interim Chancellor, Maricopa Community Colleges, delivered his second annual State of the District address on Tuesday, June 7, 2022.The event honored this year’s Champions of Maricopa, highlighted regional workforce partnerships and celebrated key supporters of the District’s mission, values, and student success.
Watch the State of the District, here.
CEI To Expand Biosciences Training After Flinn Foundation Grant the Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation will benefit from a $351,520 three-year grant from the Flinn Foundation, a private, nonprofit, grantmaking organization that aims to improve the quality of life in Arizona to benefit future generations. The grant will be used to expand CEI’s LabForce’s professional development center with a state-of-the-art bioscience training lab designed to prepare Arizona’s workforce for biotech and life science careers.The grant comes on the heels of rapid expansion for CEI over the last two years,hallmarked by the opening of LabForce in 2021 in the $77 million Phoenix Bioscience Core building located at the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix. Created by GateWay Community College and the Maricopa County Community College District to provide incubation space for bioscience entrepreneurs in Phoenix, CEI has been an industryleading entrepreneurial incubator since 2013. Over the past nine years, CEI has helped startups raise over $160M of capital, create over 765 jobs, and provide a significant economic impact to the state.
“We are honored to receive this grant from the Flinn Foundation,” said Tom Schumann, CEI’s executive director. “This award will help us expand our bioscience training to help meet the workforce needs of the state’s fast-growing bioscience industry. LabForce serves an important need by producing talent ready to serve in their STEM-focused laboratory and manufacturing positions.”
PepsiCo Uplift Scholarship Recipient Touts Program Mentorship As Key To Success
PepsiCo Foundation Uplift Scholarship recipient, Maria, is grateful for not only the financial assistance she has received, but also for the valuable life skills she learned along the way. “At the start of the semester, I thought I had good time management skills,”she said. “Sure, I had a study schedule, but as my class progressed into more difficult material and I experienced challenges in my personal life, I became stressed out and anxious, leading me to become unorganized. I was constantly exhausted, and I couldn’t keep up. I began to feel out of control,and I had so much to do that I didn’t know what to do first.”That’s when Maria remembered one very important detail about her scholarship – the benefit of mentorship and support. Maria reached out to George Malloy, Maricopa Community Colleges Program Manager, Office of Student Affairs, Special Populations, who not only listened, but offered effective suggestions. Maria remembers, “He gently reminded me it was okay to change my study schedule since we don’t always have control of changes in our lives, but the important thing is to adhere to the routine.” She continued, “George’s advice helped me get back on track. Whereas I’d felt lost and uncertain of what to do next,now I feel better equipped to set deadlines and meet them; I’ve learned to say no to anything that derails my study schedule; I’m consistently setting priorities; and most importantly, I continue taking steps – even if they’re small and I’m unsure of what to do next.”Maria is excited about the progress she’s made. She feels better prepared and more resilient and determined to reach her goals. “I know I can do this,” she said. “I am doing this and I am so thankful for this support!”
The PepsiCo Foundation’s Uplift Scholarship program is part of a $500,000 2-year grant awarded to the Maricopa Community Colleges Foundation that provides opportunities for Black and Hispanic students across the country. The Maricopa District is one of 13 community college systems in the country that was recently added to this growing
program.
