By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Founded in 1967, the Barton Community College Foundation awarded a
record-amount in scholarships last school year. Foundation Executive Director
Lindsey Bogner presented the foundation’s annual report at Tuesday’s Board of
Trustees study session. In the 2021-2022 school year, the Barton Foundation
awarded 316 scholarships to students for a total of $362,156.
Bogner said the variety of scholarship criteria can sometimes be the biggest
headache when awarding scholarships to students.
"We have 157 scholarship funds that have 157 sets of criteria," said Bogner. "The most common types of criteria are enrollment status, GPA and major. 55 percent of our awards have to be based off financial need."
Of the 316 scholarships distributed, 41% were given to students from Barton
County and 20% were given to students in the college’s service area which
includes Ellsworth, Pawnee, Rice, Russell, Rush and Stafford counties.
Bogner said it takes a minimum of $10,000 to create an endowment for
scholarships.
"To set up an endowment, our find limit is $10,000," said Bogner. "That's payable over five years. So it doesn't have to be in one check. It can be over five years. They can be scholarship endowments, enhancement endowments or they can be mixed use where we provide scholarships and capital improvement."
Along with scholarship money, the Foundation awarded $216,060 in program and
facility enhancements last year. The Foundation had $10.2 million in assets at
the end of the 2022 fiscal year.