Six area students have been selected to receive the 2023-2024 Otis and Mary Lee Molz Cooperative scholarship, the Garden City Community College Endowment Association announced recently.
The Molz scholarship recipients will receive full tuition and fees for up to 16 credit hours per semester at GCCC.
The 2023-2024 Molz Cooperative scholarship recipients are:
• Taylin Ansel – Current GCCC Student (Art)
• William Ast – Ingalls High School (Agriculture)
• Chantel Barron-Calva – Ulysses High School (General Studies)
• Adison George – Current GCCC Student (Agribusiness)
• Abigail Lightner – Ingalls High School (Agribusiness)
• Michael Varela – Current GCCC Student (Criminal Justice)
The scholarship fund, established in 2014, is made possible by the largest donation made by a living donor to the GCCC Endowment Association.
The fund provides full tuition and standard fees for Garden City Co-op employees, members, and their spouses, children, and grandchildren. A committee comprised of members from the Garden City Co-op selects the final recipients of the award each year.
About the Otis & Mary Lee Molz Cooperative Scholarship
In 2014, the Molzes committed to continue making contributions to the endowed scholarship fund until it met maturity at $500,000.
As these were the largest academic scholarships that GCCC’s Endowment Association would award each year, the Garden City Co-op also committed to contributing an additional $15,000 per year through 2024, to keep up with inflation and tuition increases.
The couple’s affiliation with CoBank also resulted in the bank’s additional $10,000 contribution to the scholarship fund.
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. For more information or to create your own scholarship, contact the GCCC Endowment Association at 620-276-0412.
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