Scholarships

The Healdsburg AAUW Fund annually supports three local scholarship programs described below. We are able to fund our annual scholarship awards through our varied member-led fundraising efforts, a generous grant provided by the late Dr. Al Garren, the continued support of individuals and businesses from our local communities, and the donations of our own valued members. We are deeply grateful to our members and community partners for their ongoing efforts to support our scholarship programs.

For more information, contact Kerry Weiner Elkind, Scholarship Chair.

High School Scholarship Program Due to generous donations from our members and the public, and our branch’s fundraising efforts, we have annually been able to provide Healdsburg AAUW High School scholarships to young women graduating from high school who will attend a four-year college. Students attending public high schools in Cloverdale, Geyserville, Healdsburg, and Windsor are eligible to apply. In 2022, we awarded AAUW scholarships of $30,000 to graduating senior girls.  Contact Beth Wolk for more information.

Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) Scholarships Since 1995, the Healdsburg AAUW Branch has awarded more than $343,000 in scholarships to re-entry women who are graduating from SRJC and continuing their education at four-year colleges. Each year the applicants are carefully screened by our scholarship committee to determine who will receive our awards. The awardees struggled to return to college, facing adversity and major hardships along the way, but have persevered and excelled as they worked to graduate from SRJC and continue their studies at a four-year college.  In 2022, we awarded seven scholarships of $4,000 each to well deserving graduates. Thank you notes from our awardees share common themes of sincere appreciation, immense gratitude, passion for education, and determination to succeed.  Our scholarships are truly helping these amazing women achieve their goals. Click here for a brief summary and words of appreciation from our 2022 recipients. Contact Jane Martin for more information.

Starting in 2019, our Al Garren Renewal Scholarship Fund has provided scholarships to previous AAUW SRJC re-entry scholarship awardees who successfully completed their third year of study at a four-year college or university and have met our criteria for a renewal award. These criteria include maintaining a 3.0 GPA or better, verifying full-time enrollment, showing continuing financial need, and submitting a required personal statement.  Since 2019, we have awarded twenty scholarships through this program, totaling $80,000, to help local women attain their educational goals. Please check out the October Grapevine article by Kay Kohler about this year’s awardees. Contact Kay Kohler for more information.