Your financial aid questions answered on "Super Saturday," Feb. 4

GCC will help with your FAFSA and other financial aid questions on Super Saturday, Feb. 4. See flyer.

Michael Farris, Germanna's Financial Aid Coordinator, answers questions in a MoneyTalks Fredericksburg.com chat.

PHILANTHROPIST ROSE BENTE’ LEE OSTAPENKO HONORED FOR GIFT THAT HELPED BUILD GERMANNA COMMUNITY COLLEGE DANIEL CENTER

Philanthropist Rose Bente’ Lee Ostapenko is met by current Germanna Community College President David A. Sam (right) and former GCC President Frank Turnage today upon arrival for a visit to the Daniel Technology Center in Culpeper.

Germanna Community College honored philanthropist Rose Bente’ Lee Ostapenko Thursday by inducting her into the “President’s Circle” for cumulative, lifetime giving. She has donated over $1 million to the college, and was one of the benefactors who made construction of the Joseph R. Daniel Technology Center possible through her donation of land, along with Kaye and Marie Andrus, Nicholas and Flora Tomasetti, and Philip and Susan DeSiato.
Current Germanna President David A. Sam, former GCC President Frank Turnage, Daniel Center Director Russell James, GCC Educational Foundation member Connie Kincheloe and Foundation Director Michael A. Catell gave her a tour of the facility, built in 2006.
The 39,000 square foot facility is designed primarily for workforce development instruction and technology training. A wide variety of credit classes are also offered.
“Your generosity made this possible,” Dr. Sam said in thanking Mrs. Ostapenko, an Arlington resident. “The college would not have been able to grow and help all these people without you.” He told her GCC, which has been one of the fastest-growing schools in the country in recent years, will serve 15,000 students, all of them local, during this academic year.
Her 2000 autobiography is entitled “Rose Bente’ Lee: An American Dream.” It tells the story of her immigration to the U.S. from Germany in 1939 and how, over time, she built one of Washington, D.C.’s most successful businesses, The House of Fine Fabrics.
In the book, she recalls, “One of my earliest memories is a desire to help the poor, sick and elderly.”
She is the first of a series of donors who are to receive GCC President’s Circle recognition.

Record total of scholarship funds raised at Germanna's Monte Carlo Night

Despite difficult economic times, Saturday night’s Germanna Educational Foundation Monte Carlo Casino Night scholarship fundraiser at the GCC Daniel Center in Culpeper set a record by raising over $100,000. All proceeds go the Germanna Guarantee Scholarship Program, which helps students who have financial need and can’t get enough aid from other source. One hundred and eighty people attended the event.

Germanna Educational Foundation 2011 Monte Carlo Night Co-Chair Clarissa Berry of Madison County said Saturday night’s event “couldn’t have gone any better.”

The foundation easily surpassed its goal of raising $100,000.

“This is our 17th year and we’ve raised more money than we ever have, and have one of the biggest crowds we’ve ever had,” Berry said. “The fact that people came out during hard economic times has blown me away.”

Culpeper resident Erica Hodge, a GGP scholarship recipient who graduated and became a nurse in 2010 altered the course of her life and saved her family’s home.

“If it wasn’t for the Germanna Guarantee Program, I would still be in school after having to take a year off,” Hodge said. “Because of it, I was able to start my career and grow my family and focus on continuing my education.” 

The 29-year-old Hodge, who has a 5-year-old son, was on the verge of dropping out of Germanna in December 2009 when her husband’s work hours were cut because of the recession. The scholarship she then received from GGP allowed her to stay and school and get her degree and become an LPN, then get a job working in a doctor’s office in Fredericksburg.

Because of the impact the recession had on her family’s income, they had found themselves in a whole, “and my first paycheck as a nurse came just in time to save our house,” she said.

“Everything fell into place for me because of the Germanna Guarantee,” Hodge said Saturday night during Monte Carlo Night at the Daniel Center. “When I found out about the Germanna Guarantee Program, I was amazed that people care so much about their community that they would help students they don’t know--help people like me and my family.”

As if to add an exclamation point, she then won a free trip for two to Las Vegas as Monte Carlo Night wound down Saturday.

Each year, the event features Las Vegas-style gambling for big prizes, libations, dinner, live music and dancing.

Culpeper Regional Health System named Germanna Community College's 2011 Philanthropist of the Year

Culpeper Regional Health System Board Secretary Wayne Hawkins accepts Germanna Educational Foundation Philanthropist of the Year Award from Bruce L. Davis, foundation president.

Germanna Community College’s Educational Foundation named Culpeper Regional Health System its 2011 Philanthropist of the Year Friday night at the Lake of the Woods Clubhouse.
Culpeper Regional Health System's total investment in its partnership with Germanna over the last 10 years is $539,266, said Mike Catell, Director of the GCC Educational Foundation & Alumni Relations. The donations have been been made in the form of scholarships, grants for nursing program development and a faculty position, and contributions to events like Monte Carlo Casino Night and Distinguished Person of the Year, which support the Germanna Guarantee Program. The hospital and its affiliated organizations have also invested in the Jane R. Ingalls Nurse Educator Fellowship.
“The relationship between Culpeper Regional Health System and Germanna Community College is vitally important to our future,” said Wayne Hawkins, Secretary of the Board of Culpeper Regional Health System , in accepting the award. “We look forward to our continued collaboration and partnership for many years to come.”
"Culpeper Regional Health System is a critical partner in our mission,” Catell said, “and the Educational Foundation is very grateful for their extraordinary investment and long-standing partnership.”
Germanna President David A. Sam said support from partners like Culpeper Regional Hospital has made it possible for GCC to make sure the area has enough nurses as the Baby Boomer population ages and demand for health care increases.
Bruce L. Davis, President of Germanna’s Educational Foundation, and a member of its Local College Board, said Culpeper Regional Health System has displayed leadership in the community and vision in its consistent and generous support of GCC. The college doubled the size of its nursing program this year and added non-credit Workforce health care certifications. Meanwhile, the total headcount of students taking classes is approaching 14,000, including nearly 8,000 students taking credit classes. “Enrollment is way up, demand for academic programs and Workforce training is way up, state funding is down, and we need more funding from local partners and donors,” Davis said.
Doris Buffett, the Fredericksburg philanthropist and sister to Warren Buffett also spoke, explained her own support of GCC by saying: “Germanna and I do much the same things and share the same goals—including helping people who otherwise couldn’t afford to go to college get degrees . We both work in the real world.”