Victoria Gomez attended Front Range Community College for two years after graduating from Silver Creek High School in Longmont, seeking to save money while pursuing a master’s degree in occupational therapy.
She is now a junior at Colorado State University specializing in biology, and she is receiving financial assistance from the Longmont Community Foundation. She received a $1,000 Ascend St. Vrain scholarship, which is renewable.
“I have zero debt because I started at a community college, and I saved enough money so I won’t have any debt my third year of college,” Gomez said. “I’m super excited to start at CSU.”
The Longmont Community Foundation recently gave out about $200,000 in scholarships, including renewing scholarships for students as they go through college and providing scholarships for those pursuing vocational education. Altogether, the foundation offers 22 different scholarships, adding new ones each year.
“Scholarships tend to fall off after high school,” said Lisa Tatusko, Longmont Community Foundation’s scholarship and gifts officer. “The idea is to support our students long term to make college sustainable.”
Since September 2021, Alycia Nemec, a Niwot High graduate who will be a junior in the nursing school at the University of Colorado Denver’s Anschutz Medical Campus, has worked as a part-time nurse assistant on the surgical floor at Boulder Community Health.
She won a $1,000 St. Vrain nursing scholarship to aid with the financial burden of attending college. In addition to working and taking out loans, she also lived at home, driving the hour to Anschutz to save money on rent.
“To have this scholarship helps so much,” she said.
After graduating, she plans to work in a surgical trauma intensive care unit. Working through the pandemic, she said, she loved seeing how much support nurses can give patients.
“When families couldn’t visit, the nurses could be a voice for them and help comfort them when no one else could,” she said. “I love how fulfilling the career is and how much time you get to be with the patients as a nurse.”
One of the foundation’s new scholarships was established this year to honor Fred Litzenberger, who played basketball as a student at Longmont High before coaching at numerous institutions and touring the world to set up camps. Each year, the scholarship covers the costs of five St. Vrain Valley high school students attending an authorized basketball camp.
Another sports scholarship honors Henry Braly, a 1950s Longmont High School lineman. The $4,900 scholarship is granted to a graduating senior from Longmont High School who plays football.
This year’s scholarship was awarded to Easton Lowrie, who plans to attend Grand Canyon University to study forensic psychology and join the Air Force ROTC program.
“I really like psychology, but I really wanted to do something in the criminal justice field,” he said. “This is a combination of those two.”
Eric Lorenz, a junior at Colorado State University, plans to study animal sciences and eventually attend veterinary school. He was awarded the $5,000 David and Rose Macy scholarship, for a total of $15,000.
Lorenz grew up in rural Monte Vista, surrounded by agriculture, and shadowed a veterinarian who treated both small and large animals.
In college, he works as an agribusiness ambassador for CSU at events and as a teaching assistant in large animal anatomy labs. His future plans include working as a veterinarian in a rural area and potentially teaching.
“This scholarship is helping me pursue my degree and cut down on my undergraduate expenses,” he said. “In the vet industry, there’s a lot of burnout, including from the high student loans you carry.”
Avry Lee, a first-generation college student, graduated from Longmont High and is headed to Colorado Mesa University in the fall to major in graphic design.
“I love drawing and painting and digital art,” she said. “Graphic design is a good way I can go into the business side of my future and still involve my creativity.”
She earned college credits by taking AP classes at Longmont High School and a Front Range Community College class. She is also lowering college costs with scholarships. One of these is a $1,000 scholarship in memory of Madeline Sherrod, which can be renewed for a second year through the Longmont Community Foundation.
“College is the best thing and the most exciting thing that I could do,” she said. “I’ve always wanted that college experience.”