ABOUT THE COOPERATIVE SCHOLARSHIP:

The Garden City Community College is currently accepting applications for the Otis and Mary Lee Molz Cooperative Scholarship for the 2024-2025 School Year.  

They are awarding a limited number of scholarships of $2,720 each (the cost of tuition & fees for a sixteen credit hour semester).

• Applicants must be a current member, spouse, child or grandchild of a current member of the Garden City Co-op OR a current employee, spouse, child or grandchild of a current employee of the Garden City Co-op.  
• Applicants must have a cumulative GPA of 2.75 or higher.  
• Applicants must be enrolled as a full time student (twelve or more credit hours) at the Garden City Community College.  
• Applicants must submit responses to the following questions:                                                     

1. Tell us about yourself and your connection to the Garden City Co-op                               
2. One of the cooperative principles is "Concern for the Community".  If awarded this scholarship, what are you going to do emulate our cooperative values and pay it forward in your community?  

For Returning Applicants Only (Returning Applicants - please complete questions 1&2 in addition to #3):

      3.  During this last school year, in what ways have you demonstrated this commitment?  

This scholarship is open to students in any program of study.

To apply for this scholarship, contact the GCCC Financial Aid Office at: (620) 276-9519 or apply online: https://gcccks.edu/

SEND YOUR ESSAY ANSWERS  TO: ruby.solorzano@gcccks.edu

THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2023-2024 SCHOOL YEAR IS APRIL 7TH!

Otis & Mary Lee Molz hope these scholarships will help you and your family attain your educational goals at Garden City Community College.

ABOUT OTIS & MARY LEE MOLZ:

Otis & Mary Lee Molz, farmstead in the Deerfield area.  Otis has been very involved with GCC, joining the board of directors from 1965-1974 and then serving again from 1979-1992.  While on his second term, he spearheaded an endeavor that took an act of congress to finalize.  Otis along with other co-op members traveled to D.C. and spoke to then Senator Bob Dole and paved the way for the Wichita Bank of Cooperatives to merge with ten other banks to form CoBank in 1989, giving a lot more financial flexibility to cooperatives.  He served on the board from 1992-2003.  

Otis & Mary Lee Molz are strong believers in the value of education (Mary Lee a former schoolteacher herself) and the cooperative business model which one of the cooperative principles is concern for community.  

Otis and Mary Lee Molz have spent much time and effort in the creation, direction, establishment, and support of cooperatives both in Kansas and in Latin America, where the couple traveled to provide education and training in agribusiness to developing cooperatives in the region. Otis and Mary Lee were honored with the “Donor Lifetime Achievement Award” from the GCCC Endowment Association in 2016, in recognition of the generous financial support they have given to the GCCC students*.

Asking Otis & Mary Lee Molz about what made them decide to give such a generous gift, Otis responded in a 2014 interview upon the scholarship’s announcement: “Education has been very important at the co-op as well as at the college, and I just see a chance to tie the two of them together.  The way the scholarship’s designed is to help the Garden City Co-op to attract and keep good people employed here which helps build a community and you’re spending the money…on more than one thing.  You’re getting a lot of good results, hoping that it will make a difference with the employees and it should.”

Mary Lee commented, “I think this co-op has always reached out for the whole community…they’ve done a lot for all of the people around.”

John McClelland (GM:  2003-2018) said “The scholarship focus will provide an avenue for students to stay involved in agriculture locally while furthering their education.  It will be weighted to help students that have a financial need and provide an opportunity that some students didn’t think they had.”  

*From a Garden City Community College press release