Pasadena City College Foundation Announces Top Westerbeck Scholarship Winners

Winners are among 255 PCC students to receive more than $230,000 in scholarships at December 3 scholarship awards ceremony

The Pasadena City College (PCC) Foundation, the fifth-largest community college foundation in California, announced the top three winners of the Robert Westerbeck Scholarship. The $5,000 awards will be presented during the Foundation’s annual scholarship awards ceremony to be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3, at the Pasadena Hilton, located at 168 S. Los Robles Ave. in Pasadena.

The winners will be among 225 Pasadena City College students receiving more than $230,000 in scholarships.

The Westerbeck scholarships, endowed by Robert and Adrienne Westerbeck, were established to support PCC continuing students. To be considered for the award, students must have at least a 2.5 grade point average on a 4.0 scale, a course load of at least six units, and at least 24 units of completed coursework. They also must submit two letters of recommendation.

The top three 2014-2015 Westerbeck scholars are:

* Ashley Gentry – A resident of South Pasadena, Gentry is a business administration major and plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She completed her first year at PCC with a 4.0 grade point average and is an active member of Alpha Gamma Sigma, the California community college scholastic honor society. She also is employed part-time at a family-owned business. She is a graduate of South Pasadena High School where she was a four-year starting member of the varsity softball team and, during her senior year, was named captain and the team’s most valuable player.

* Gina Harris – Born in Pasadena, Harris is majoring in television operations and production and plans to pursue a career working on major television special-event productions and Christian-oriented television movies and films. At PCC, she is a producer at the student-operated Lancer Radio Network, a technical director for Lancer Lens’ PCC One video news program, and a videographer for the college’s public relations department. She also interns at The Pasadena Weekly.

* Ryan Liu – A resident of Arcadia, Liu is majoring in political science and earlier served as a Congressional intern in Washington, D.C. He plans to attend law school and pursue a career in public service or law. Born in the United States, he spent his early childhood in Argentina before he and his family returned to the U.S., where the maternal side of his family had settled after fleeing the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

“Pasadena City College was an integral part of the lives of Robert and Adrienne Westerbeck, who fervently believed that education was the way to realize the American Dream,” said Bobbi Abram, PCC Foundation executive director. “These scholarships not only carry forward their legacy, but represent a significant investment in the future of our students and our community.”

This year, more than 940 students competed for Foundation scholarships, which range up to $5,000 each and which include the President’s and Honors at Entrance scholarships. A 75-member scholarship committee – composed of PCC faculty, staff and management, Foundation board members, and Pasadena community representatives – selected the winning students on the basis of their grade point averages, community service and involvement, and personal statements.

Since 2008, the Foundation has awarded more than 4,200 scholarships totaling nearly $1.9 million to PCC students. In the 2013-2014 academic year, financial aid from all Foundation-administered programs totaled more than $628,000 and was awarded to nearly 1,000 students.

PCC Foundation scholarships are funded by individual, corporate and foundation donors. Many of the funding sources were established through bequests and planned giving. The Adrienne Z. Westerbeck Family Trust and the Osher Initiative for California Community College Students are the foundation’s two largest scholarship underwriters, with each providing more than $100,000 in scholarships annually.

About the Westerbeck Scholarships

In 2011, PCC received a $4 million donation to establish the Robert Westerbeck Scholarship Endowment. It was the largest single donation in the college’s history. Robert Westerbeck, an alumnus of what then was called Pasadena Junior College, worked as an engineer at Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank and later at Perkin-Elmer Corporation, a Pasadena-based engineering firm. Adrienne Westerbeck taught music at Pasadena City College until her retirement.

About the Pasadena City College Foundation

The Pasadena City College Foundation (pasadena.edu/foundation) was established as a 501(c)(3) organization in 1979 to develop the funding and community support to enhance teaching and learning at Pasadena City College. The Foundation supports major capital projects, investments in classroom technology and equipment, student scholarships, faculty grants, and special student and community services.