Media Contact: Cherie Yurco;
CMYurco@DallasCollege.edu
For immediate release — Feb. 28, 2024
(DALLAS) —
Dallas College Foundation is celebrating its 50th anniversary year with a series of events and new gift announcements. A transformative $1 million gift from the Chesmar Foundation, announced today, will support students at the Dallas College School of Education.
Dallas College Foundation revealed the major gift in front of an audience of philanthropic leaders in Dallas at the kickoff session of
Social Venture Partners Dallas’ 2024 Social Innovation Luncheon Series. Chesmar Foundation’s funding will support a scholarship program that targets aspiring teachers and students engaged in paid work-based experiences at Texas public schools. The program will develop innovative partnerships with local school districts to employ graduates.
“Through community partners like Chesmar Foundation, Dallas College Foundation can change the equation when it comes to preparing the teacher workforce that our growing community needs. This partnership will help solve workforce shortages while opening opportunity to hundreds of individuals to earn credentials to launch rewarding careers in education,” said Josh Skolnick, executive director of Dallas College Foundation.
“One of Chesmar Foundation’s missions is to improve lives,” said Don Klein, Chesmar Homes CEO and Chesmar Foundation chair. “Funding teacher education allows aspiring teachers to achieve college degrees debt-free and become employed as teachers right in the neighborhoods where they grew up. This scholarship improves the lives of new teachers and all the students that the Chesmar Scholarship recipients will teach, benefiting many future generations.”
The School of Education has been a major recipient of philanthropic support since its launch, garnering over $4 million toward its mission. Dallas College is the first community college in the state of Texas to offer a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and teaching. It has dramatically expanded pathways to careers in education for hundreds of students, including the 125 students who graduated in its inaugural class in May 2023.
The Chesmar Foundation announcement capped off the luncheon’s speaker panel, which included Dallas College’s Dr. Carlos Cruz, associate vice chancellor of student well-being and social support; Dr. Robert DeHaas, vice provost, School of Education; and Dr. Karen Stills, senior associate vice chancellor of student success. The leaders detailed how Dallas College Foundation’s philanthropic partnerships have propelled the college’s mission of transforming lives and communities through higher education, as well as how Dallas College Foundation plans to re-imagine that support over the next 50 years.
Dallas College Foundation’s 50th anniversary celebrations began Oct. 19, 2023, exactly 50 years after its founding, with its Shine On: 50 Years of Dallas College Foundation Legacy Celebration. On April 8, Shine Together: Dallas College Foundation’s 50th Anniversary Eclipse Party will be held at Texas Discovery Gardens. The annual Bits & Bites fundraiser, supporting Dallas College culinary programs, will be held on April 21. Those events round out a yearlong celebration of Dallas College Foundation’s role in providing pathways of opportunity for tens of thousands of Dallas College students since its founding.
“As proud as we are of what we’ve accomplished over these last 50 years, we know that the next 50 years will be even more impactful. This generous gift from the Chesmar Foundation is evidence that the philanthropic community is ready to support the kind of innovative and transformative programming that Dallas College is uniquely suited to offer its community,” said Skolnick.
To date, Dallas College Foundation has distributed more than $65 million in scholarships and grants to support thousands of Dallas College students.
For information about Shine Together: Dallas College Foundation’s 50th Anniversary Eclipse Party, please email
Foundation@DallasCollege.edu.
Please visit the
Bits & Bites event webpage to learn more about the event and purchase tickets.
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About Dallas College Foundation
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023-2024, Dallas College Foundation is an independent 501(c)3 whose mission is to advance economic mobility for students in our community by channeling the power of philanthropy to lift Dallas College to new heights of innovation, equity and excellence. Since its creation in 1973, the foundation has raised more than $103 million in private donations and distributed more than $65 million in scholarships and grants to support thousands of students at Dallas College.
About Dallas College
Dallas College, formerly the Dallas County Community College District, was founded in 1965 and consists of seven campuses: Brookhaven, Cedar Valley, Eastfield, El Centro, Mountain View, North Lake and Richland. Dallas College offers online learning and serves more than 122,000 credit and continuing education students annually. Dallas College also offers dual credit for students in partner high schools and early college high schools throughout Dallas County. Students benefit from partnerships with local business leaders, school districts and four-year universities. Dallas College offers associate degree and career/technical certificate programs in more than 100 areas of study, as well as bachelor’s degrees in education and nursing. Based on annual enrollment, it is one of the largest community colleges in the U.S.