By Shelley Austin
Published on November 21, 2007
“Helping Make Dreams a Reality.” That’s The PJC Foundation’s motto, and it is doing all it can to live up to it.
Established in 1965, Pensacola Junior College Foundation is a private non-profit tax deductible corporation. The Foundation encourages, solicits, receives and administers gifts and bequests of property and funds to benefit the college.
PJC Foundation is managed by a board of governors made up of members in the community who have an interest in PJC. Board members, who are chosen by a nominating committee, usually serve a three-year term and then may be re-elected, but foundation officers may only serve a two-year term.
According to the Board of Governors Secretary Pam Caddell, their duties include raising money to provide financial assistance to students, raising money to buy equipment for the school that they may not be able to get through other means, and raising money for teachers for special projects.
“We’re like a fund-raising arm for the college” Caddell said. “Basically what we try to do is increase the awareness for PJC.”
PJC Foundation has more than $12.5 million in assets and manages funding for several scholarships including 135 endowed scholarships as well as nine endowed chairs.
Patrice Whitten, executive director of the PJC Foundation, said that some of the scholarships are started by individuals who want to create memorials or tributes to someone such as the Ami-Lee Wilder Memorial Endowment. According to Whitten, the Wilder endowment was started by the parents of a young woman who attended PJC and lost her life in a car accident. Whitten also said that other scholarships are started by other foundations and corporations.
With the help of the Universal Scholarship, the Foundation was able to help Hurricane Ivan victims by providing financial assistance and employee loans to some of PJC’s students and employees.
“We had students who had no home,” Whitten said. “Many of them lived in some of the apartment complexes nearby that were wiped out.”
The foundation was able to take money from the scholarship fund to help students replace textbooks and other required class materials that were lost during Hurricane Ivan, Whitten said.
Whitten said that students are encouraged to utilize all other financial assistance first, such as applying for Free Application for Federal Aid just as nursing student Stephanie Graham did. Graham found out about the foundation from PJC’s financial aid department on Warrington’s campus after being denied federal aid.
As a single parent of three children and facing a divorce, Graham had no way of paying for her tuition. After filling out a scholarship application at the foundation, Graham received an email.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I received a full scholarship for one semester for tuition and books, and then I received a partial scholarship to supplement another scholarship for this semester.”
Graham said that she doesn’t know what she would have done if the foundation had not helped her.
According to Whitten the criteria for scholarships vary. Some scholarships only require one to be in good standing or be in a certain program of study while others are more stringent.
“I really just think that they are on the ball and have their act together,” Graham said. “They’re doing what a foundation board should do and I think that the school should be proud with the way that its run.”