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Scholarships don't just provide financial help to these folks. Rather, they actually act as lifelines in many cases. They are permission slips. They are a chance to exhale and recenter. They offer support when it feels impossible.

As the semester starts to wind down, I'm approximately halfway through my fifth year here at EC3. Maybe it's just this time of year as the days grow darker and colder, or maybe it's simply that five years is long enough to appreciate what a rare privilege it is to build something that matters and to watch it grow in ways we could never have scripted.

This month, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) released a powerful report titled "Resilient by Design: The Future of America's Community Colleges." ...While this report is sparking conversations across the country, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. EC3 was built for this moment. We've been doing college differently from day one.

Walk into a classroom at any community college, and you'll see more than just students. You'll see parents balancing work and family, veterans restarting their lives, retirees learning for the joy of it, first-generation students trying to navigate an entirely new world, and everything in between.

The generosity on display and commitment to our students were deeply moving, and I am sincerely thankful to everyone who participated.

It's almost that time again! EC3's Quarterly Breakfast is just around the corner, and this is truly one of my favorite events that we host.

One of the things that I like to do every semester is to host a Pizza with the President event...I get to meet students and hear their stories. I can't tell you how much I enjoy these opportunities to sit down with our students and learn about them.

These professionals handle everything related to the student experience outside the classroom – from advising to registration to counseling to tutoring to library services – and they do it with a level of student-centered passion that's unmatched.

If you've driven past our Erie West campus lately, the location formerly known as Villa Maria on W. 8th Street, you've probably noticed a constant flurry of activity.

And can there be anything more hopeful than students taking that first step toward changing their lives? After all, that's what happens when they walk through our doors for the first time. They are staking their future on the hope for something better.