For nearly 40 years, the Bucks County Foundation has been supporting Bucks County Community College through the Happ Grover Fund, offering tuition scholarships to students from Central Bucks School District area that choose to attend Bucks. The Happ Grover Fund, which honors the memory of lifelong Bucks County resident Gladys Happ, was one of the first administered funds of the Bucks County Foundation, a community trust started in 1979.
The first Happ Grover scholarships were given in 1983 to 18 students. Last year in 2021, 108 students received tuition scholarships. In total, Bucks County Foundation has administered more than $1.4 million in scholarships, through the fund, providing nearly 3,000 students with financial support to attend Bucks County Community College or DelVal University in Doylestown.
Growing up in a prominent Bucks County family, Gladys Happ was a proponent of Bucks County economic development. Through her giving, she ensured that young people had the resources to attend college locally and stay in Bucks County after graduation. There, they would start businesses, raise families, and become major contributors to the economic and social development of the area.
“With today’s rising cost of housing and living in Bucks County, scholarships are even more important,” says Mandy Mundy, executive director of BCF. “Lack of affordable housing wasn’t the original main concern for Mrs. Happ when she decided to support local education through philanthropy, but the way these scholarships ease the financial burden for so many people going to college, is a testament to her commitment to the future of Bucks County.”
“Bucks County Community College is extremely grateful” says Bucks President Felicia Ganther, “for the continued support of the Bucks County Foundation in helping us to provide scholarships to deserving students. The college is humbled and honored to be a beneficiary of the Foundation in their work to support education in our region.”
Mundy shares Dr. Ganther’s perspective: “It is an honor for the foundation to award these scholarships and to invest in the future of our local students and our Bucks County community.”
For more information about the Bucks County Community College Foundation and the scholarship program, contact Christina McGinley, executive director, Foundation and Alumni Relations; christina.mcginley@bucks.edu.
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