Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Scholarship recipients were honored for their achievements at Monday night's ceremony. (Photo by Craig Matthews/Atlantic Cape Community College)
Atlantic Cape Community College honored its sponsors and donors Monday, along with the students who reaped their rewards through their academic achievements.
The 58th Annual Atlantic Cape Community College Foundation Scholarship Recognition Ceremony acknowledged the 242 students who received a total of 422 scholarships worth $408,815.
The event in the Jonathan Pitney Hall Gymnasium on the Mays Landing campus allowed those students to meet their respective donors.
“We cannot do this important work alone,” Atlantic Cape President Barbara Gaba said. “The support from our philanthropic community is essential to our success. I am so proud of the positive impact our work has on all the students for over 60 years. I look forward to many more years of success and achievement ahead.”
Assemblyman Don Guardian touted the benefits that the state’s community colleges play in the lives of its students and communities during his opening remarks.
“Community colleges provide you with affordable continuing education, it helps determine what the jobs are going to be five, 10 and 20 years down the road, and develops the curriculum that will provide the skill set for you to earn a good paying job,” he told the recipients. “We want you to be happy with the job you’re doing and I want you to live in Atlantic County, raise a family here and to enjoy the beautiful things that we have in South Jersey. And, it’s the College that helps make that possible.”
Since the foundation’s started in 1978, it has raised more than $8 million for student scholarships,
academic programs and enhancing the campus environment.
“To all recipients of the scholarships, it gives us benefactors great pride in doing what we do,” said Foundation Secretary Stephen R. Nehmad. “I think it gives us greater pride in giving than in the receiving. The immediate results and how we help those who we provide scholarships for and help literally changes lives so much for the better.”
Two Atlantic Cape recipients spoke of the life-altering experiences that these financial awards did for their education and their lives.
“Growing up, when I would ask about college, I was told that it is not for me and now I have to figure
out other options,” Michael Heston said. “I thought college was only for people with money, and coming from a low socioeconomic background, this idea quickly became truth to me.”
He eventually dropped out of high school, and joined the workforce, bouncing between jobs before finding steady work at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission.
“I then became curious about higher education, but I didn’t have a high school diploma,” he explained.
So he earned his GED in 2019, and by 2023, was attending Atlantic Cape, where he is a Liberal Arts major with a Sociology option.
“Thanks to the scholarships I have received tonight, I will be able to continue to pursue my long-term goal of earning a college degree while being able to take care of my family comfortably,” said the recipient of the Samuel & Gladys Levinson, and Day of Giving scholarships. “I am very grateful for being chosen as a recipient. Thank you to the donors and the foundation for making this possible.”
Brooke Ramirez is a Nursing major who received the Robert Hunter Doherty Memorial Scholarship, the Angelic Health Foundation Social Work Scholarship, the AAUW Marion MacEwan Second Chance
Scholarship committee, and the Hollander Memorial Foundation Scholarship.
“These scholarships are particularly meaningful to me because they will help me continue a lifelong
dream of mine and lessen the financial burden,” she said. “As a mother, I wanted to prove to my daughter, no matter the obstacle we can achieve what we put our minds to, even while working full-time in a healthcare facility, being a full-time student, a devoted mother and wife. It is possible. Thanks to your generosity, you have made my goal possible.”
Alumni Association Executive Council President and Atlantic Cape Foundation Trustee Ahmet
Sahingoz moved to America from Turkey a decade ago with his mother and father.
“We moved here with pretty much one reason only, which was for me to get a better education and build a good future for myself,” he said. “For the past 10 years, for me and my parents, we have experienced so many great things. That’s why we’ve been feeling indebted to the college and the community. That is why, for the past few years, we’ve been sponsoring the Sahingoz Family Scholarship. We are committed to paying back.”
Atlantic Cape Foundation Trustee Hugh Turner said Monday’s event was the culmination of a year-long fundraising effort “and, to me, it’s the most satisfying event of the year.”
“This is where, we the donors, the foundation board members and college board members get
to see and meet the recipients of these scholarships, while also celebrating with their family and friends,” he said. “This event keeps me motivated to raise even more money as we go forward to next year.”
No calendar events have been scheduled for today.
