Why Give to Scholarships?
Every student deserves an education that matches their ambition.
With your help, finances don’t have to be a barrier for our students who dream of a brighter, healthier, and more just tomorrow for themselves, our community, and our world.
Most of our students are low-income and eligible for less financial aid than students attending four-year institutions, and students must work 20 to 40 hours per week to make ends meet.
Scholarships allow students to take more units, work fewer hours, focus on school, and complete their goals in less time.
Types of Scholarships
With your gift to the Panther Scholars Fund, you can help ensure that education is accessible and affordable for all. This unrestricted scholarship pool allows us to provide financial assistance to a greater number of qualified students, which may make a difference in their decision to complete their education.
Every donor who makes a gift of at least $500 will receive a thank-you letter from one of the recipients of the Scholars Fund.
Endowed scholarships are a perpetual gift to the college made in your name, the name of your business, or the name of a loved one. Endowed scholarships begin at $10,000, allowing you to direct support to students majoring in particular programs or areas of study that match your interests. Only the interest from the endowment is used to fund yearly scholarships, providing permanent support for generations of students.
Donors receive an annual financial report on the growth of the fund, thank-you letters from the recipients, and membership in the Los Rios Legacy Society.
To establish a new scholarship, contact:
Jessica Falor-Ward
Email: falor-j@losrios.edu
Phone: (916) 559-2198
Memorial scholarships provide a meaningful way for family, friends, or a company to honor a loved one or cherished colleague while carrying their legacy forward to future generations of students.
A memorial scholarship carries the name of your loved one, and can be set up as an endowed scholarship or offered as part of our Scholars program, but directed to support students majoring in particular programs or areas of study that are meaningful to the namesake attached to it.
To establish a new memorial scholarship, contact:
Jessica Falor-Ward
Email: falor-j@losrios.edu
Phone: (916) 559-2198
For many students, one unexpected bill – a car repair, medical emergency, fire, or rent increase – can derail their education. The Student Emergency Fund gives immediate financial help to students experiencing an emergency, so they can continue their progress toward a certificate or degree.
Many recipients of the Student Emergency Fund have faced heartbreaking challenges – some have experienced homelessness, lost their homes to fire, lost their jobs, struggled to feed their families, or survived violent crimes. Despite their hardships, these students remained determined to finish the education they started at Los Rios. Your gift can help them reach their goals.
The Promise to Career provides "finish line" scholarships to career education students to help them with the costs of testing and licensing so they can obtain their credentials and get to work.
Hundreds of students graduate from these programs each spring, ready to go out and get to work. However, they have one last hurdle before they can do so: completing their testing and licensing, so they are certified to work in their chosen field. Testing and licensing fees range from $125 to more than $1,000.
These costs may prevent many of our students – who have already experienced years of economic hardship during their education – from entering the fields they have worked so hard to train for. Your gift in support of these career education programs will remove barriers to success and increase the talent pipeline in our region.
Take Action–Fund a Scholarship Today
Create an Endowed or Memorial Scholarship
To establish a new scholarship, contact:
Jessica Falor-Ward
Email: falor-j@losrios.edu
Phone: (916) 559-2198
Give to an Existing Scholarship
Please note that we are charged 5% on credit card gifts. If you are renewing your scholarship online with a credit card, then please add an additional 5%, so that we can award the scholarship in full.
To avoid this 5% fee, you may mail a check made out to the Los Rios Colleges Foundation to 1919 Spanos Court, Sacramento, CA 95825. Please write the name of the scholarship and/or college in the memo.
Add/Update Your Scholarship Donor Bio
We are collecting brief biographies of all our scholarship donors, and you can help us by providing your donor bio. We provide this information to scholarship students, so they will know a more about you (and how to address their thank you note).
How are Scholarship Recipients Selected?
To be eligible for a Foundation scholarship, students must have completed at least one class at one of our colleges (American River, Cosumnes River, Folsom Lake, or Sacramento City) and be enrolled in at least one class when they apply for a scholarship. Students do not have to be US citizens or permanent residents.
The scholarship selection committee is made up of Foundation Board Members, faculty, staff, and community volunteers. The committee evaluates all application materials before selecting recipients for individual scholarships. The committee's decisions are based on financial need, academic ability, future potential, articulation of goals, leadership, and personal service.
If no student matches a scholarship's criteria, then the scholarship funds will be kept in the donor's scholarship account for the next year. Scholarships cannot be awarded to a student who is related to the scholarship donor.