December 7, 2020

The application for the prestigious Greenleaf Scholarship is now available. Copper Mountain College Foundation encourages all graduating seniors in the Morongo Basin to submit their paperwork by 3:00 pm on Wednesday, February 24, 2021.

The F. Roy Greenleaf, Jr. Education Fund was established by the estate of F. Roy Greenleaf, Jr. Mr. Greenleaf came to the Morongo Basin in the 1970s and started a community bank. Mr. Greenleaf developed a close relationship with the Friends of Copper Mountain College, now the CMC Foundation.

He made a trust arrangement for his estate to be transferred to the Foundation after the death of his wife Beverlie. Mr. Greenleaf’s legacy, twenty years later, continues on and his endowment has changed many lives.

Timothy Estes, a Greenleaf Scholarship recipient, at graduation.

“It’s crazy to think about how a kid like me, who comes from the middle of a desert in a small town half the people in Santa Barbara have never even heard of, is now soaring in the upper echelons of academia,” says Tim Estes.

Mr. Estes continues, “This is my dream come true, and sometimes I have to pinch myself every now and then to just make sure that this life I am living is in reality and not some storybook. I get to study and learn about things that I am passionate about, eat food that a couple of hundred years ago only the royalty would have gotten to eat, and live in a city that is about as close to paradise on earth as it gets.”

Timothy Estes is a Greenleaf success story. The Greenleaf Scholarship allowed him to pursue an education without worry about finances.

Chosen as the 2014 Greenleaf Scholar, Tim’s tuition, fees, and living expenses were all paid from the Greenleaf Education Fund, which is administered by the CMC Foundation.

The Greenleaf Education Fund requires that recipients begin their education at Copper Mountain College. They may then pursue baccalaureate degrees at campuses of their choice within the University of California and California State University systems.

After two years at CMC, Estes left to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Statistical Science at the University of California Santa Barbara, graduating in 2019 with honors. He currently works as a data engineer in Southern California.

“I am extremely grateful and I know that many of the things I get to experience right now are a direct result of the Greenleaf Scholarship. I realize and acknowledge that I would not be here today without your support or Copper Mountain College. Thank you, thank you, thank you!” stated Tim Estes.

For more information or to obtain an application, talk with your high school counselor or visit our website at What We Fund.