2025 VCCF Scholarship Season – A Thank You From Our Students
A Letter from Our Scholarship Director
THANK YOU for supporting the Programme de bourses d'études de la VCCF. Your dedication is so greatly appreciated.
It was another record-breaking year, with over $1.8 million dollars awarded for scholarships in 2025, a first for our program. 🎉
Our application closed in January with 1,271 applicants. Of that pool, 412 students have been selected for a scholarship, and 35 of those awardees are getting the maximum scholarship amount of $10,000. We are thrilled that the program continues to grow and that we are serving more Ventura County students in their quest for a higher education. We are so proud of our students for all their hard work, and we can’t wait to see where their passions will take them in their higher education.
Our volunteer readers and scorers are quickly growing into a mighty and sizable taskforce, with 210 volunteers serving this year. In addition to reading and scoring applications, both our scholarship donors and readers stepped up to visit most of our county’s Senior High School Awards Ceremonies to present VCCF Scholarships to students, a wonderful new way to highlight our program.
We also welcomed several new scholarship donors this year, and one I would like to highlight is our partnership with Gold Coast Health Plan, who founded an endowed scholarship serving local students pursuing a career in the behavioral health field. This new scholarship offers tiered awards for all levels of education: certificate programs, associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, and postgrad level awards. The Gold Coast Health Plan Behavioral Health Scholarship awardees all plan to return to Ventura County to serve the mental and behavioral health needs of our local community. I want to thank Gold Coast Health Plan for their partnership and for founding such a worthy cause to support.
Last but certainly not least, I want to thank my teammates who make this work an absolute joy! Our new Scholarship Specialist Sierra Kettenburg has embraced her role and made incredible improvements to the administration and organization of this program, and our Chief Compliance Officer Tracy Tagawa is always ready to work through any challenges we may face. THANK YOU, TEAM!
Looking forward to next year, thank you all again for your partnership and support!
Cheers,
Kirsti Vomund
Directeur des bourses d'études de la VCCF