CAMARILLO, CA. - The Ventura County Community Foundation will award more than $820,000 in scholarships to local students at the 2011 Scholarship Awards Reception on June 2.

This year, the Community Foundation will give more than 290 scholarships to 265 students who will attend such universities as Stanford, UCLA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Notre Dame, Brown, California Lutheran, Pepperdine and Cal State Channel Islands.

“These scholarships are made possible by the generosity of people who believe in investing in the future of Ventura County,” said Hugh Ralston, president and CEO of the Community Foundation.

“Most scholarships were established as permanent endowments at VCCF by donors who want to keep a loved one’s memory alive by making college a reality for a motivated young person,” Ralston said. “Thanks to our success in investing these funds for the long term, we are able to sustain these legacies through annual gifts to local students to help them follow their dreams.”

This year’s awards include two new memorial scholarships. The Stephen Devron Resnik Memorial Scholarship honors the late owner of the Somis Nut House. Since Resnik was an avid volleyball player, his family wanted to give first priority to a student-athlete participating in that sport.

Graduating language majors had the opportunity to apply for the inaugural Ronald Mack Adams Memorial Scholarship, established in the memory of the Oxnard School District teacher. Adams’ love of languages was sparked at Oxnard High in the late 1950s when he became that school’s first exchange student to Germany.
Students from throughout Ventura County had from November of last year until mid-January to apply for VCCF scholarships. Thanks to a new financial-aid screening tool on vccf.org, students could determine more reliably which awards they qualified for based on financial need.

The average college student graduating this year will have $27,000 in debt from education loans, according to a recent report on National Public Radio, Ralston noted.

“By awarding scholarships to qualified students, we hope to spare them some of the burden of taking on excessive student loan debt,” Ralston said, “and ensure they can get the education they hope for.”

Carlos Espinoza, a junior psychology major at the University of California, Davis, and recipient of a total of $27,000 over two years from VCCF scholarship funders, echoes Ralston’s words.

“I cannot thank them enough for investing in me, my education and in my dream of helping people, people like me who have dreams and are willing to go against the odds to obtain them,” said Espinoza, of Oxnard.

Since its founding in 1987, the Ventura County Community Foundation has awarded more than $7 million in scholarships and is the local leader in granting financial aid to Ventura County youth.

The scope of this annual undertaking would not be possible without dozens of unsung volunteers who have worked behind the scenes since the January application deadline, Ralston noted. A team of 16 processed the more than 2,600 applications, 19 screened the applications to make sure they complied with the guidelines set by donors. A committee of 29 volunteers reviewed and rated the almost 1,200 eligible applications, and made recommendations which were approved by the VCCF Board of Directors in early May.

VCCF is a family of charitable funds with combined assets of $108 million. Its mission is to promote and enable philanthropy to improve our community for good for ever, which it does through grantmaking, scholarships and leadership training programs through the Center for Nonprofit Leadership. VCCF has been certified in compliance with national standards by the Council on Foundations, the highest form of peer review in the United States. For more information, visit vccf.org or contact VCCF at (805) 988-0196.

Fillmore- Mayra V. Amezcua, Orfalea Scholarship ($2,500), Susana Amezcua, Orfalea Scholarship ($2,500), Esmeralda N. Carrillo, Saticoy Lemon Association Employee Scholarship ($650), Corey R. Cole, Indian Education Scholarship ($300), Mariela Contreras, VCCF Scholarship ($600), Linnea C. Fechtner, William & Cynthia Fairburn Memorial Scholarship ($2,000), Diana J. Gumber, William & Cynthia Fairburn Memorial Scholarship ($2,000), Chloe N. Keller, William & Cynthia Fairburn Memorial Scholarship ($2,000), Joseph M. Liu, Orfalea Scholarship ($2,500), Arturo Luna, Adelante Scholarship ($1,000), Miguel A. Mendez, Gould Family Scholarship ($500) and Orfalea Scholarship ($2,500), Joel Orozco, Finch Family Scholarship ($4,000), Grace A. Simon, Orfalea Scholarship ($2,500), Karissa M. Tarango, Orfalea Scholarship ($2,500), Iris P. Villalobos, Orfalea Scholarship ($2,500), Juan R. Villalobos, Orfalea Scholarship ($2,500), Hayward Stephanie Murray, TEACh Scholarship ($2,300). Piru - Isis M. Topete, Stanley E. Cohen Memorial Scholarship ($600).