Executive Director, SouthArk Foundation
Dear SouthArk Friends,
When a student enrolls for the first time at South Arkansas Community College, a whole new world of opportunities lies ahead, providing access to learning experiences that will last a lifetime. Generous financial support from our donors to the SouthArk Foundation have made a tremendous impact in helping students achieve their educational goals.
The Foundation enriches students’ lives by providing support for them to receive an education that is affordable and accessible. We recognize that you, our benefactors and the community as a whole, are the key to helping us to accomplish our mission and make our vision a reality.
In the last 16 years, the Foundation has had a phenomenal growth of net assets from less than $10,000 to over $3 million. This increase in dollars has enabled us to sustain our long-standing commitment of providing scholarships and other educational opportunities to students.
For many years, the majority of funds donated to the Foundation have been used to support student scholarships. While this continues to be one of our chief objectives, the complexities of a 21st century education increasingly necessitate the need for additional resources to support program development, facilities maintenance, and emerging community needs. Traditional revenue sources – local and state dollars combined with tuition –continue to provide a solid education for our students, however contributions and grants provide the additional unrestricted resources that are needed to enhance academic opportunities and add the educational excellence that SouthArk continues to uphold.
The generous spirit of donors, partners, college faculty and staff have supported funding, in part, for the Health Sciences Building completed in January, 2011, and our beautiful green space, the William R. and Cacilia Heritage Plaza. Proceeds from an incredibly successful annual fund drive and extraordinary contributions from major donors have funded scholarships which support programs of study in general studies, health sciences, fine arts, trades and industry, and computer and business technologies.
We deeply appreciate the efforts of our community in serving those students who wish to reach their educational goals. The coming year promises to be even more exciting and challenging as we strive to respond to the college’s requests for funding of new projects. With sincere appreciation for your commitment and support, I look forward to the continued success of this institution as the premiere educational center of south Arkansas.
Cynthia Reyna
Director of Institutional Advancement and Foundation