The Foundation has a long history of maximizing educational opportunities at Copper Mountain College (CMC) to benefit students by supporting programs, facilities and activities at Copper Mountain College, and this past year has been no exception.
The Copper Mountain College Foundation recently held their Board installation dinner for the upcoming fiscal year. During the dinner Foundation Executive Director, Sandy Smith updated the incoming Board with the Foundation’s accomplishments for the past year. Ms. Smith stated, “thanks to our donors’ generosity, we are changing lives, the lives of our students, their children, and even their grandchildren”.
One of the Foundation’s top priorities is meeting basic students’ needs including transportation, childcare and food. By subsidizing over 30,000 bus rides on Morongo Basin Transit Authority (MBTA), keeping the childcare center adjacent to campus open through a private daycare provider, Neverland Childcare Center, and starting a hunger free campus program that provides snacks around campus and meals at Bruce’s Place. The Foundation addresses factors that affect students before they even set foot in the classroom.
Another focus of the Foundation is on extra-curricular opportunities that enhances the college experience. Publishing 800 copies of the 21st edition of the campus’ literary magazine, the HOWL, boosts student writing and editing skills while creating published authors out of current students. The Foundation also ensures our Vocational Nursing students are ready for their nursing boards by paying for all Vocational Nursing (VN) students’ pre-testing study program for their nursing boards. Since the Foundation began paying for this study program in 2012, the VN pass rate has been 100% for the NCLEX, their nursing board certification. This past year the Foundation also provided six Amazon Kindle Fire tablets for students who completed internships of 100 hours with the Community Partners Internship program.
The Foundation also awards numerous scholarships. The Greenleaf Scholarship, a full ride to earn a Bachelor’s degree was awarded to Reuben Schmit of YVHS. In addition, the Foundation has three past scholars still on track to earn their Bachelor degree’s (Yvonna Mullen at CMC, Kamaljot Singh at UCR, Tim Estes at UC Santa Barbara). Furthermore the Foundation has distributed $125,830 in scholarships to incoming and continuing CMC students including $25,000 in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) Scholarships from Southern California Edison.
The Foundation committed $100,000 to the new Fighting Cacti Basketball teams to fund the first year of an athletic program by purchasing Spike, the Fighting Cacti mascot costume and establishing the CMC Athletic Booster Club, which fundraised for the athletic program last season. In addition, the Foundation has also helped by funding the installation of a second set of bleachers, painting the gym floor, mounting twenty-three sponsor banners in the gym, and replacing the refrigerator and freezer in the snack bar.
The Foundation is instrumental in assisting CMC with its mission to provide educational opportunities for diverse desert communities and beyond through a comprehensive curriculum and support services that demonstrate a passion for the success of every individual student. CMC offers high quality, affordable instruction that enables students to attain mastery in basic skills and career development, as well as building pathways to associate degrees, certificates, university transfer, and personal enrichment
If you would like to learn more or find out how to help support students at CMC contact the Foundation at www.cmccd.edu/Foundation or call 760-366-3791 ext. 4200.