2015-16 Academic Year
Nursing Student Wins $5,000 Kaider Scholarship
Nursing director Judith Clavijo, staff member Jean Burke, Financial Aid assistant Jacqueline
Ramos and Kathleen Austin, director of Diagnostic Medical Sonography at Foothill,
recently surprised student Laurel Fee with the $5,000 Kaider Scholarship.
The scholarship was established by philanthropists Steven and Lola Kaider to assist women with educational expenses as they returned to school to complete programs and serve in health care careers.
Fee is a first-year nursing student. She received a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Cal Tech, but decided to pursue a career in nursing to help others.
Rotary Club of San Jose Gifts $9,500 to EOPS
The Rotary Club of San Jose Foundation recently awarded the EOPS program a Community
Grant of more than $9,500 to purchase computers and printers for its computer lab.
Extended Opportunities Programs and Services is a state funded program to assist low-income and academically disadvantaged community college students. Eligible students receive support services including early registration, personal and academic counseling, transfer assistance and book assistance.
Nearly 800 De Anza students rely on the services provided by EOPS, and the office serves as a home base for most of them throughout their time at the college. The new EOPS computer lab will be dedicated in the spring.
“This generous donation will allow EOPS to provide in-office computer access and printing services to our students,” noted Michele LeBleu Burns, dean of EOPS/CARE and student development. “It is essential to our students' success that they have ready access to information online and are able to print class assignments. Thanks to the Rotary Club of San Jose, this expanded computer lab will remove a major barrier for them."
Founded in 1949 to support the charitable activities of the Rotary Club of San Jose, the foundation has given more than $5,000,000 to local and international projects including grants to 150 organizations that serve the community. The Rotary Club of San Jose, founded in 1914, is one of Silicon Valley’s most active service organizations and is made up of more than 3,000 business and community leaders.
Gene Haas Foundation Awards $1 Million to DMT Department
De Anza College was recently awarded a $1 million gift by the Gene Haas Foundation to expand its Design and Manufacturing Technologies (DMT) classrooms and labs. The expansion and dedication event will be held later this year.
"We deeply appreciate this gift from the Gene Haas Foundation," said De Anza College President Brian Murphy. "The students of the DMT department, the college as a whole and the community will benefit tremendously from the foundation's generosity."
The college's DMT department contains some of the nation’s leading programs. It is
National Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS) accredited in machining, and offers
approximately 35 courses including CAD, CAM, and CNC mill and lathe. De Anza is one
of only a few colleges in California that is NIMS accredited.
More than 1,500 students enroll in the program annually. The department offers four
certificates and three A.S. degrees. It has a robust advisory council that includes
some of Silicon Valley’s leading employers.
“The Gene Haas Foundation Board has chosen to honor Gene's commitment to manufacturing education by investing in the top CNC programs in North America,” noted Kathy Looman, the foundation’s administrator. “De Anza College’s Design and Manufacturing Technologies Department is one of those stellar programs. Thanks to the leadership of Mike Appio, the college has been an integral part of the Haas Technical Education Centers (HTEC) network, a network of more than 3,000 schools worldwide that are training skilled programmers and operators for the manufacturing industry. Gene Haas will be very proud to have his name on this program.”
Last year, De Anza was chosen as HTEC's western teacher training facility in response
to the need for more instructors to prepare students for the anticipated 3.5 million
manufacturing jobs anticipated in the next decade. In addition to the $1 million grant,
the Gene Haas Foundation is committed to providing scholarships to the region's students
and teachers.
The Gene Haas Foundation, in Oxnard, was founded in 1998 by Gene Francis Haas, founder of Haas Automation, Inc., one of the world's leading CNC machine tool manufacturers. The foundation continues to be a leader in philanthropy around the nation in the areas of advanced manufacturing, teacher training and food security.
Last September, the Gene Haas Foundation announced a $1 million capital gift to New York’s Hudson Valley Community College as part of the college’s technology center expansion. In November, NIMS officially opened the Gene Haas Education Center in Fairfax, Virginia, to help educators and businesses deliver high-quality manufacturing training for students and employees.
To date, more than 1,200 charitable organizations and schools have received more than $27 million from the Gene Haas Foundation.