Tom Scanlan
A few years ago, Tom Scanlan was considering how he might leave something behind for the college he loved. The Grossmont College Professor Emeritus had retired in 1990, after a distinguished, 26-year career teaching physics and astronomy. He got his start teaching in 1964, the same year that Grossmont opened its current campus.
“I felt we kind of grew up together,” Scanlan said. “They gave me a very good career and a very enjoyable life.”
Scanlan approached the Foundation for Grossmont & Cuyamaca Colleges at the end of 2021, and began working to create a charitable gift annuity (CGA) in his name. He was the first to set up this type of donation. A CGA is one of several planned giving options now available to donors under the Foundation’s Legacy Circle program. Other options include naming the Foundation as a beneficiary of a retirement plan, gifting directly from an IRA, and gifting securities or life insurance. More details are available here: http://foundation.gcccd.edu/planned-giving/.
For Scanlan, a CGA made a lot of sense. Under this arrangement, he donated appreciated stocks and bonds to the college, by way of the Foundation. Under the terms of the CGA, the gift was set aside in a reserve account. Scanlan receives a fixed payment every month, based on the amount donated and his age, and he’ll continue to receive the monthly payment for the rest of his life. When he passes, the Foundation at that time will receive whatever sum remains.
Charitable gift annuities allow the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District to plan for the future, while letting the donor specify how the gift, when it ultimately goes to the college, should be spent – whether for an endowment, a scholarship, capital projects, or other purposes.
By setting up a CGA, the donor, called the “annuitant,” may also realize certain tax benefits. A tax deduction may be taken at the time of the original gift, and a portion of the monthly payments received by an annuitant may also be tax-free for a period of time. The Foundation will help donors work out all these details.
As Scanlan considered donating to the campus, he knew he wanted to do something that would help young people pursue a college education – not only for a career but for the sake of acquiring knowledge.
The Rice Family
Cuyamaca College is naming a classroom in the Ornamental Horticulture Complex after a longtime benefactor which recently endowed the college district’s Promise Plus program $100,000 for student scholarships.
The Governing Board approved the classroom dedication Friday in recognition of the decades-long support of the Rice Family Foundation, which has donated more than $1 million to Cuyamaca and Grossmont colleges over the years, particularly the horticulture program.
A plaque will be posted outside a classroom in the complex currently under renovation as part of the college district’s Proposition V construction bond program. The $16.7 million project, scheduled to be completed in fall 2020, will include updated facilities, well-equipped greenhouses, an outdoor instructional area and expanded retail space for the college nursery.
In 2018, the Rice Family Foundation was lauded by the Foundation for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges and presented with the Bill and Judy Garrett Civic Leadership Award for its years of support for Cuyamaca and Grossmont College students.
This time, the foundation created by the late Morgan Rice, a San Diego real estate investor, is being recognized by the college district for its support of Promise Plus, a scholarship program to help students at the East County community colleges reach their education goals.
Promise Plus Scholarships were created by the Foundation for Grossmont and Cuyamaca Colleges to provide critically needed scholarships to students at both colleges. The scholarships are targeting new full-time college students, adults returning to college to improve their workforce skills and students transferring from Adult School. Priority will be given to students with financial need.
The Rice Family Foundation’s pledge of $100,000 over five years follows a tradition dating back to the mid-‘90s when the Morgan Rice Internship Program was established to provide Cuyamaca College students practical work experience in nursery production and sales. The Rice Family Foundation continues to fund the program, along with scholarships to students in the Ornamental Horticulture program.
“The Foundation’s support of our Ornamental Horticulture program has served the community and countless students for many years,” said Cuyamaca College President Julianna Barnes. “This latest gift will provide additional support for our students; we are grateful for their continued support and are pleased to be able to name a classroom in their honor.”
Lisa Wilson, Morgan Rice’s niece, said the mission of Promise Plus is in keeping with the philosophy of the charitable foundation created by her uncle. She said her uncle, who died in 2004, was once a high school teacher in El Centro and believed in the transformative power of education. The emphasis of funding and grants from his foundation is on education, particularly programs benefitting San Diego County’s neediest populations. Beneficiaries include Balboa Park museums, the San Diego Zoo, K-12 and higher education programs, and others focusing on literacy, music and the arts.
“We have always felt a strong connection to both Cuyamaca and Grossmont colleges and our foundation board believes that higher education is a really important cause to support,” Wilson said. “There are so many young students who can’t afford to go to college and the Promise Plus program is a great way to help.”
Since the early 2000s, the Grossmont College Theatre Arts Department has benefitted from the Rice Family Foundation’s financial support of the college’s touring program that brings the performing arts to more than 8,000 children every year at 16 East County elementary schools. The Heritage of the Americas Museum and the Water Conservation Garden, both located at Cuyamaca College, also receive foundation dollars.
She added her uncle was an outdoorsman with a keen interest in horticulture and geology. His connection to Cuyamaca stems from his long friendship with Governing Board trustee and former Ornamental Horticulture program chair Brad Monroe. The pair became acquainted after Rice, who at one time owned most of the land parcels on San Miguel Mountain near the college, contacted Monroe about donating a cargo shipping container he no longer needed. From that contact, a friendship and an enduring relationship with the college district was born.
Clint Womack
It was 1999, Clint Womack’s final season of varsity football at Mira Mesa High School and the senior was striving for a scholarship and recruitment to play college ball. The Southern California native, who was born in Anaheim and grew up in San Diego, suffered a broken ankle during the third game of the season. That put the kibosh on Womack’s immediate plans to finish strong during his final year on the high school gridiron.
“I was hoping to earn an athletic scholarship out of high school, but the ankle injury altered those plans,” said Womack, now the president and owner of Vintage Lending, a Utah-based mortgage brokerage and lender currently licensed in 11 states across the country, from California to Florida.
With no university scholarship offers, Womack, who played football, baseball, soccer and volleyball in high school, turned his sights to Grossmont College. Then offensive coordinator Michael Jordan and his father and head coach Dave Jordan led Griffin football to a state championship in 2005.
“I liked the style of offense that Mike Jordan ran and I felt that he would give me a fair shot to compete for the starting quarterback position,” Womack said about the college’s now head football coach.
Womack went on to play football at Grossmont College in 1999 and in 2000, he won the Joe Roth Memorial Award, given to the San Diego County community college football player who best exemplifies high academic standards and athletic excellence.
“Football was a big part of my life and it taught me important lessons about team work, discipline, and dedication,” said Womack, a Foundation donor, who this past spring contributed $5,000 during a Grossmont College football fundraiser that went toward the purchase of uniform gear. Womack said he is especially keen to help athletes who join Grossmont College’s football program from out of state with the hope of going on to earn an athletic scholarship to play at a university.
“The out-of-state students have to pay higher tuition and often also have to work to pay for their own housing while they try to go to school and play football, as well,” he said. “That’s a lot of strain to juggle all of that.”
While at Grossmont College, Womack was named 1st Team All American, and most importantly, in 2001, he received an athletic scholarship to Northern Arizona University. The following year, he, received the Offensive National Player of the Week Award as the starting quarterback at NAU, where he played until graduating in 2003 with a degree in Exercise Science with a pre-med emphasis and a minor in chemistry. After completing his two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Georgia and South Carolina, he contemplated medical school, but decided to pursue business instead.
“I realized I’m an entrepreneur at heart,” said Womack, who lives with his wife and three children, Sophie, 7; Kate, 8; and Zac, 10, in Salt Lake City. Womack credits Grossmont College for its formative influence on his business and life’s success.
“From nutrition to consistency and leadership, the life skills I gleaned from my years at Grossmont College will always hold a special place in my heart and mind,” he said.
Dr. Sam Ciccati
From his own experience as a community college student to his time as president of Cuyamaca College, Sam Ciccati knows firsthand the transformative value of education. Through his $1 million endowment, scholarships and assistance will be offered to Cuyamaca College students in perpetuity.
“I hope with this gift there will be students who would never get to college who will now get to go,” Ciccati said. “Then they’ll be successful and pass this on to the next generation.”
In recognition of the gift, the performing arts center at Cuyamaca College is named after him.
Ciccati himself is a community college success story. The ninth of 12 children born to immigrant parents, he was working at an SDG&E power plant in National City to help support his family when his boss prodded him to enroll in college classes. He attended San Diego City College part-time for two years before he transferred to San Diego State University. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from SDSU, and later received his doctorate degree from United States International University. Ciccati began teaching, then became a counselor at Grossmont College until he was named a vice president of the college in 1976. In 1984, he was selected as the second president of Cuyamaca College, serving until 1993. Ciccati said his background and work demonstrated how community colleges can transform lives.
Ciccati had been supporting students at the colleges even before his recent donation. He funded four scholarships for students at Cuyamaca and Grossmont colleges through a fundraising campaign matched by the Bernard Osher Foundation that allows the scholarships to continually be offered each year. Ciccati’s brother, Daniel, who died in 2010, also funded a scholarship.
Ciccati has also endowed four scholarships at the San Diego State University College of Education and one in men’s basketball. He also endowed a scholarship at the Monarch School, a school for homeless children in San Diego.
“My affinity with the community college is strong,” Ciccati said. “I feel strongly about the value of community college.”
Bill & Judy Garrett
The Foundation for Grossmont & Cuyamaca Colleges established an annual award honoring individuals who have made notable contributions to the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District and the East County community. For its first year, the recognition, named the Bill and Judy Garrett Civic Leadership Award, was presented to the Garretts to honor their leadership on district boards and their financial support of Grossmont and Cuyamaca College students. Bill Garrett has served on the district’s Governing Board since 2004, including 11 years as board president.
Judy Garrett has served on both the Cuyamaca College and Grossmont College foundations. When the two foundations merged in 2011, she served for three years as president of the newly-formed Foundation for Grossmont & Cuyamaca Colleges. In addition to their service to the district, the Garretts have funded multiple perpetual scholarships ensuring students at both colleges receive scholarships in their name each year. They have also supported the theater and music programs at the colleges, and other initiatives such as an emergency scholarship for students who face financial hardships.