Highline Community College

MEDIA RELEASE

 

FOR RELEASE:  IMMEDIATELY
DATE:                  February 5, 2009

CONTACT:         Lisa Skari: (206) 870-3705, lskari@highline.edu

 

HCC Foundation receives donation to start scholarship for low-income parents

 

DES MOINES, Wash. — Highline Community College Foundation has established the Sugar Tiger Scholarship Endowment through a generous donation from the college’s Board of Trustee Dr. Elizabeth Chen and her husband, Mark.

 

“The Foundation Board of Directors was delighted to hear of the Chens’ generous donation. We are most grateful for their support of Highline Community College,” said Lori DeVore, president of the Board of Directors for the HCC Foundation.

 

The scholarship will benefit low-income, single parents who plan on continuing their higher education at a four-year university or college.

 

One $1,000 scholarship will be awarded in fall 2010. Additional scholarships will be awarded annually beginning in fall 2011.

 

Federal Way residents Elizabeth and Mark Chen are longtime supporters of Highline and higher education in Washington state.

 

Elizabeth Chen was appointed to Highline’s Board of Trustees in November 1995 and re-appointed in September 1999 and October 2004. She has served on the Board of Trustees as the chair from 2001-2002 and 2006-2007 and was vice chair from 1996-1998 and 2005-2006.

 

In May 2006, she was named the “Trustee of the Year” by Washington state’s Trustees Association of Community and Technical Colleges, honoring her years of service to Highline and the higher education system.

 

In November 2007, she was elected to serve as the Pacific region director on the board of the national Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) for a two-year term.

 

She has also served as the chair from 2005-2007 and vice chair from 2003-2005 of ACCT’s Diversity Committee.

 

She currently is a board member of the HCC Foundation.

 

Highline Community College was founded in 1961 as the first community college in King County. With approximately 10,000 students and 350,000 alumni, it is one of the state’s largest institutions of higher education. The college offers a wide range of academic transfer and professional-technical education programs, with day, evening, online and weekend classes.

 

With the most diverse population of any college in Washington state, Highline takes a multicultural approach to education for the success of all its students and the prosperity of its surrounding communities. Alumni include former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, entrepreneur Junki Yoshida and Washington state poet laureate Sam Green.

 

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