Scholarship Reception
HCC awards scholarships worth more than $400K
Holyoke Community College will celebrate the more than 400 students who have been awarded HCC Foundation scholarships for the 2026-2027 academic year with a special reception on Thursday, May 14.
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 2026-2027 academic year, the HCC Foundation awarded 438 scholarships worth $405,000 to 422 incoming, current, and graduating students. Individual awards range from $500 to $5,000. Some students received more than one scholarship.
“Every scholarship tells two stories – one of a donor who believed in a student they might have never met and another of a student who now has one less barrier standing between them and a college degree,” said Laura White, assistant director for donor relations. “When donors and recipients come together, you can see firsthand the impact of that generosity, and it’s genuinely moving.”
The reception for scholarship recipients, their families, and donors will feature brief remarks from White, President George Timmons, and Interim Vice President Katherine Douglas, followed by keynote speeches from 2026 scholarship recipient Zoe Bisbang of Holyoke (recipient of the Cloud 9 Scholarship) and donor Vincent Naro of Westfield, who created a scholarship in memory of his late wife, HCC alum Mary M. Naro ’78, a nurse who died in 2018.
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: HCC Scholarship Reception 2025
