Bossier Parish Community College officials recognized gifts from two donors yesterday, resulting in the establishment of three new significant endowments that will benefit deserving students and faculty members:
- The Citizens National Bank / John R. McConathy Endowed Scholarship in Business
- The Citizens National Bank / John R. McConathy Endowed Professorship in Business
- The Bossier Healthcare Foundation Endowed Professorship in Allied Health
With the generosity of these gifts, the BPCC Foundation secured $110,000 from the State of Louisiana Board of Regents Support Fund to permanently endow the new funds. The Board of Regents Support Fund was established in 1986 pursuant to an amendment to the Louisiana Constitution to maintain a source of state dollars for higher education grant opportunities for 2- and 4-year colleges in Louisiana.
“Bossier Parish Community College is truly appreciative of the Regents’ continued support for these types of programs which contribute to making our state and communities better places to live and work,” said BPCC Chancellor Dr. Bateman.
Bossier Parish Community College and Citizens National Bank have had a long-standing relationship for more than 20 years. In 1999, Citizens National Bank established the Citizens National Bank Scholarship, and in 2009, in honor of Mr. McConathy, Citizens renamed the scholarship the Citizens National Bank / John R. McConathy Scholarship with a renewed pledge of $250,000.
Citizens National Bank President Jason Smith agreed to leverage their gift and apply for state matching funds, which would increase the educational impact on our students to create an endowed scholarship in business. In addition, Mr. Smith and the Citizens Board expressed their intent to support an existing faculty member or provide an incentive to attract a new faculty member in the BPCC Division of Business.
To that end, the BPCC Foundation requested $40,000 from the Board of Regents to match the private gift of $60,000 from Citizens to create an endowed professorship in business, also in honor of Mr. McConathy.
“We thank our friend and partner Citizens National Bank for its vision and desire to make Bossier Parish Community College better for our students and faculty and ultimately, for our community and workforce,” said Dr. Bateman.
Another donor and longtime friend of BPCC is the Bossier Healthcare Foundation. In 2002, they established the Bossier Healthcare Foundation Scholarship for second-year BPCC students in a medical or healthcare course of study with a lead gift of $60,000. This scholarship has helped numerous students in the Division of Science, Nursing, & Allied Health complete their career goals and go on to care for our community as nurses and healthcare practitioners.
With the assistance of our Foundation President Rocky Rockett, the Foundation staff approached Mr. Ed Carpenter and Mrs. Rosemary Patterson of the Bossier Healthcare Foundation Board with the possibility of submitting the fund’s investment earnings, which had doubled the fund’s size in value over 16 years, to the Board of Regents for matching funds to create an endowed professorship in our Division of Science, Nursing, & Allied Health.
The Bossier Healthcare Foundation Endowed Professorship in Allied Health will assist the College in retaining an exceptional faculty member who will lead our future healthcare practitioners into our workforce.
These two new endowments join the Contractor’s Trust Endowed Professorship in Industrial Technology established in 1999 and the BPCC Foundation Endowed Professorship in Nursing established in 2016. The current holder of the Contractor’s Trust Endowed Professorship is Lamont Lackman, Assistant Professor in the Division of Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics; and the current holder of the BPCC Foundation Endowed Professorship in Nursing is Terri Durel, Assistant Professor in the Division of Science, Nursing, and Allied Health.
BPCC Foundation receives funds from the State of Louisiana Board of Regents at a check presentation yesterday.
Pictured are (left to right):
Regent Wilbert Pryor
Regent Claudia Adley
BPCC Chancellor Dr. Rick Bateman, Jr.
Ed Carpenter, President, Bossier Healthcare Foundation
Rosemary Patterson, Vice President, Bossier Healthcare Foundation
Jason Smith, President, Citizens National Bank