$10.1 Million Gift to Los Angeles City College Provides all Music Majors with Education

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles City College Foundation has received a $10.1 million gift from The Herb Alpert Foundation, creating an endowment that forever transforms the music department and the lives of the talented music students who study at Los Angeles City College (LACC). The gift is the largest ever given to a community college in Southern California.

The gift provides music majors at LACC tuition-free attendance, additional private lessons and further financial aid to enable them to succeed in their community college experience. This support extends to all music majors, whether enrolled in the two-year certificate programs or in the applied music major program that prepares students for pursuing a four-year music degree. It allows for significant student growth over the coming years and builds on the Foundation’s long–standing financial support to LACC, which has exceeded $500,000.

“I love that LACC has helped so many low income students who have financial challenges but have a strong commitment to education and to self-improvement,” says Herb Alpert.

The Herb Alpert Foundation’s new gift highlights the important role that the music department plays within LACC. Besides fully funding the cost of tuition and private lessons for every student that is a music major at LACC, it enhances the department’s ability to offer opportunities for non-music majors as well. Approximately 4,000 students take some type of music courses at LACC every year.

“The Herb Alpert Foundation’s two core areas of funding are the Arts, and Compassion and Well-Being, and this gift to LACC beautifully marries those two priorities,“ says Rona Sebastian, president of the Herb Alpert Foundation. “It supports those music students dedicated to pursuing advancement in this artistic discipline, and it provides an often underserved, diverse student population with a fair, just and compassionate opportunity to afford the costs of a higher education.”

“The vast majority of our students are from underserved communities and faced with enormous financial challenges as they strive to attain their academic and career goals,” says Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Los Angeles City College Foundation. “This generous gift from the Herb Alpert Foundation allows these talented students to focus on their studies while pursuing their individual pathways towards successful careers in the music industry.”

LACC, one of the nine community colleges within the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), provides the largest selection of performing arts classes and majors among the LACCD campuses. Forty percent of the music students within the district study at LACC. In 1946, LACC became the first college in the U.S. to offer a major in jazz.

LACC Mission Statement
The mission of the Los Angeles City College Foundation is to develop philanthropic support to assist the College in providing accessible educational programs that assure academic and vocational excellence for the students of Los Angeles City College, and that enrich the cultural, economic, and civic life of Los Angeles.

About The Herb Alpert Foundation
The Herb Alpert Foundation, a nonprofit, private foundation established in the 1980’s, makes significant annual contributions to a range of programs in the Arts and in Compassion and Well-Being. Its funding is directed toward projects in which Herb and Lani Alpert and Foundation President Rona Sebastian play an active role. (Please note: the Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.)

Featured

  • ed tech conference calendar

    Upcoming Awards, Events & Webinars

  • Case Study Highlights Texas District’s Campus Security Upgrades

    The Taft Independent School District near Corpus Christi, Texas, recently partnered with Intech Southwest Services to revamp its campus security technology system, according to a news release. Intech has released a case study on its website detailing the process that advanced the district’s technology by more than 20 years in less than three weeks.

  • Kimball Showroom Earns WELL Certified Platinum Distinction

    Commercial furnishings company Kimball International recently announced that its showroom in New York City has achieved WELL Certification at the Platinum level as dictated by the International WELL Building Institute, according to a news release. The certification demonstrates a continuing commitment to creating environments that promote health, well-being, and productivity.

  • Tufts University Breaks Ground on Two New Residence Halls

    Tufts University in Medford, Mass., recently broke ground on two new residence halls with a total capacity of 664 beds, according to local news. The project’s ultimate goal is to expand on-campus housing and reduce pressure on the local housing market.

Digital Edition