Why Give to Scholarships?
At Cosumnes River College, every student deserves the chance to pursue an education that matches their ambition and potential. With your support, financial barriers don’t have to stand in the way of students who dream of creating a brighter, healthier, and more equitable future for themselves, their families, and our community.
Many CRC students come from low-income backgrounds and receive less financial aid than students attending four-year universities. To stay in school, most must work 20 to 40 hours a week, balancing jobs, family responsibilities, and coursework.
Your investment in scholarships helps change that story. Scholarships allow CRC students to take more classes, work fewer hours, and focus on their studies, helping them reach their goals and graduate sooner, ready to give back to the community that supported them
Types of Scholarships
At CRC, we want to ensure that education is accessible and affordable for all. To meet this goal, we have created the CRC Hawk Scholars scholarship. This scholarship is a CRC-focused program created from funds that are pooled together into a general scholarship for deserving students.
Every donor who makes a gift of at least $500 will receive a thank-you letter from one of the recipients of the Scholars Fund.
Endowed scholarships are a perpetual gift to the college made in your name, the name of your business, or the name of a loved one. Endowed scholarships begin at $10,000, allowing you to direct support to students majoring in particular programs or areas of study that match your interests. Only the interest from the endowment is used to fund yearly scholarships, providing permanent support for generations of students.
Donors receive an annual financial report on the growth of the fund, thank-you letters from the recipients, and membership in the Los Rios Legacy Society.
Memorial scholarships provide a meaningful way for family, friends, or a company to honor a loved one or cherished colleague while carrying their legacy forward to future generations of students.
A memorial scholarship carries the name of your loved one and can be set up as an endowed scholarship or offered as part of our Scholars program but directed to support students majoring in particular programs or areas of study that are meaningful to the namesake attached to it.
For many CRC students, one unexpected bill – a car repair, medical emergency, fire, or rent increase – can derail their education. The Student Emergency Fund gives immediate financial help to students experiencing an emergency, so they can continue their progress toward a certificate or degree.
Many recipients of the Student Emergency Fund have faced heartbreaking challenges – some have experienced homelessness, lost their homes to fire, lost their jobs and struggled to feed their families, or survived violent crimes. Despite their hardships, these students remained determined to finish the education they started at Los Rios. Your gift can help them reach their goals.
Take Action – Fund a Scholarship Today
To create an endowed or memorial scholarship, contact Michele K. Steiner at michele.steiner@losrios.edu or (916) 286-3659.
Additional Information
We are collecting brief biographies of all our scholarship donors, and you can help us by providing your donor bio. We provide this information to scholarship students, so they will know more about you (and how to address their thank you note).
To be eligible for a scholarship, students must have completed at least two classes at one of our colleges (American River, Cosumnes River, Folsom Lake, or Sacramento City) and be enrolled in at least two classes when they apply for a scholarship. Students do not have to be US citizens or permanent residents.
The scholarship selection committee is made up of Foundation Board Members, faculty, staff, and community volunteers. The committee evaluates all application materials before selecting recipients for individual scholarships. The committee's decisions are based on financial need, academic ability, future potential, articulation of goals, leadership, and personal service.
If no student matches a scholarship's criteria, then the scholarship funds will be kept in the donor's scholarship account for the next year. Scholarships cannot be awarded to a student who is related to the scholarship donor.