Gateway Community College Foundation Advised Fund

Dorsey L. Kendrick, the former president of Gateway Community College, would often speak about how a $250 scholarship could make a major difference in a student’s academic life. Throughout her long career at the helm of Gateway, Dr. Kendrick encouraged donors to give whatever they could.  

“It was really her vision that no scholarship donation was too small,” said Gateway Foundation Board Chair Thomas Beirne III, Washington Trust Wealth Management’s Vice President, Senior Wealth Planning Officer and Business Development Manager. “We’ve always embraced Dr. Kendrick’s spot-on assessment of the needs of our students and we still have $250 scholarships. It could mean a student getting to that graduation finish line or not.” 

Across decades, the Gateway Foundation has awarded $1.6 million in scholarships to more than 23,000 students. Now, it has established the Gateway Community College Foundation Advised Fund at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. “We wanted to transition assets to The Community Foundation for their stewardship and the breadth of experience,” Beirne said. 

“The Community Foundation brings professional management, exceptional oversight and governance, allowing directors of nonprofit boards to sleep at night,” he said. “Board members of foundations who are entrusted with donations demand a few things from their investment partners – transparency, diversification of investments, structure and oversight. The Community Foundation delivers on all of those things with great care and service. They are a true partner.” 

The Gateway Foundation wants to continue to grow the fund to help as many students as possible. “Many of our students are first generation college students, trailblazing for an entire family,” he said. “We’ve found that many of our students run on a razor’s edge financially. Something as seemingly simple as a car repair can determine or prevent them from attending next semester.” 

Programs in place through the Gateway Foundation help with that. “We can provide funding not just for laptops or other technology needs,” Beirne said.

“Our students don’t want a handout,” he said. “They looking to lower the speed bumps that are in their way. The Gateway Foundation helps lower those speed bumps, so they can go right over them toward success. Everyone should be lifted up. Education is the mechanism by which that happens.”

Since so many students apply for scholarships, Beirne said board members, Gateway faculty and community members volunteer to read the applications. “In the applications, students share a personal story. It became clear that one young woman applying for a scholarship was homeless,” he said. “She was living in her car, and still getting to classes, doing her work, and moving along.”

The scholarship committee reached out to the student and connected her to wrap-around services to help her find housing and provided funds for the security deposit to help her get back on her feet. Beirne said she went on to complete her course of study.

CT State Community College Gateway continually adapts to the needs of employers in the Greater New Haven community, developing a program for railway personnel when Metro-North Railroad officials said they needed such a program and creating a skill up program for people in mid-career in manufacturing, providing a win-win for “our very talented and motivated students and the employers,” Beirne said.

“Our local business communities can count on Gateway to meet their workforce needs,” Beirne said. “Our graduates typically stay here in the community. They work here, live here and pay taxes here and take part in all the city has to offer so our fund spills forward. It’s a fund for hope and opportunity.”