Scholarship Reception
HCC to celebrate scholarship awardees
Holyoke Community College will celebrate the nearly 400 incoming, current, and graduating students who have been awarded HCC Foundation scholarships for the 2025-2026 academic year with a special reception on Thursday, May 15.
The HCC Foundation’s annual Scholarship Reception will run from 3 to 5 p.m. on the second floor of the HCC Campus Center.
For the 2025-2026 academic year, the HCC Foundation awarded 410 scholarships worth $364,400 to incoming, current, and graduating students. Individual awards range from $500 to $5,000.
“While the launch of MassEducate, the state’s free-community-college-for-all program, has made HCC accessible to more individuals, that only means we have a greater responsibility to ensure students make it to the finish line,” said Amanda Sbriscia, vice president of institutional advancement and executive director of the HCC Foundation. “Tuition and fees represent only a portion of the cost of being a college student today, and, oftentimes, a donor scholarship can truly change a student's life.”
The reception for scholarship recipients and their families will feature remarks from Laura White, HCC assistant director of donor relations; Amanda Sbriscia, executive director of the HCC Foundation; and keynote speeches from 2025 scholarship recipient Diana Rodriguez of Chicopee; and donor LouAnn Daly, a former Holyoke resident, who has endowed two HCC Foundation scholarships.
The nonprofit HCC Foundation is a 501(c)(3) that works to advance the college’s mission, vision, and values. Founded in 1968 as the Friends of Holyoke Community College, in response to a devastating fire that forced the college to rebuild on a new campus, the Foundation now manages assets of more than $20 million, the largest community college foundation endowment in Massachusetts.
PHOTO: (Thunbnail) HCC student Diana Rodriguez, right, will give the student speech at the 2025 HCC Foundation Scholarship Reception on May 15; (Above) HCC Scholarship Reception 2024.
