Community College Holds Annual Awards & Breakfast

Provided by Bucks County Community College:

The Bucks County Community College Foundation presented its annual Community Awards Wednesday, March 18, at the Newtown campus. The honors were given during the 7^h Annual Bucks Community Awards & Breakfast, sponsored by Comcast.

The awards acknowledged the efforts and support of Dr. Marjorie Zipin, retired, BCCC Accessibility Office, in the education category; The Dow Chemical Company in the partnership category; Jim and Maureen Seibert in the partnership category; and Professor Emeritus Lyle Rosneberger in the volunteer category.

Fred Schea, president of the BCCC Foundation Board of Directors, noted that the awards recognize outstanding achievement by individuals, foundations, and corporations that are making a difference in the areas of education, community, partnership, and volunteerism. “The Foundation is proud to recognize the great partners in our community who go above and beyond, and really make Bucks County Community College a very special place,” noted Schea.

Honored were:

Education Category: Dr. Marjorie Zipin.

Zipin came to Bucks in 1997 as a Learning Disabilities Tutor, then Learning Disabilities Specialist after an already rich career in special education and mental health.  She has also used her talents in arts and music working with young adults with brain injuries, and in community justice by becoming active with the Board of Directors of Graterford Prison and the Montgomery County Mental Health Consumer Action Team. With the Foundation’s help, she was able to purchase needed equipment for students with vision impairments. She also made a leadership gift to create a fund that would allow the Director to assists students in need who incurred unexpected costs. She retired from Bucks in 2014.

Community Category:  Dow Chemical Company.

The Dow Chemical Company has contributed more than $5 million in our region to education, environment and economic development programs since 2010. The Company received the Corporate Philanthropy Award in 2013 from the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of the Top 25 Most Charitable Givers in the region. At Bucks, they have supported major gift campaigns supporting Disability Services, the Annual Fund, the Lower Bucks Capital Campaign, and many other various efforts over the years. More recently, they have supported Bucks with grants for innovative projects in the engineering program, as well as biotechnology workshops for Bristol high schools.

Partnership Category:  Jim and Maureen Seibert.

The Seiberts established the Brian Seibert Memorial Scholarship in 2001. This scholarship, in memory of their son who passed away from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, has been awarded to over 20 students at Bucks who, like their son, has had or currently has cancer. The thank you letters from these students are extraordinary in their acknowledgment of the support they feel from Jim and Maureen, complete strangers to them, who understand their struggle. The Seiberts have also recently established another scholarship award for student athletes, also in memory of Brian, who was a gifted soccer and baseball player. Additionally, they have helped the athletics program secure several pieces of equipment they needed for those sports, and have inspired others to support athletics as well. Maureen recently retired worked for the College for many years.

Volunteer Category: Professor Emeritus Lyle Rosenberger.

Rosenberger founded Bucks County Community College’s Historic Preservation Certificate Program in 1991 and continued as its coordinator until 2005. In 2006 he received the James Marston Fitch Preservation Education Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council for Preservation Education, and in 2008, received the James Biddle Award for Lifetime Achievement in Historic Preservation. In addition to teaching at BCCC, he continues to coordinate the Tyler Gardens volunteers, putting in countless hours in the gardens himself. He also spearheads the Tyler Gardens Lecture Series, which benefits the Stella Elkins Tyler Garden Endowment, which has raised over $77,000 since 2003, and engaged hundreds of community members through lectures and tours.

The Bucks Community Breakfast and Awards, sponsored by Comcast, featured comments from College President Dr. Stephanie Shanblatt, BCCC Foundation Board President Fred Schea, Bucks alumnus Skylar Bird, owner of Café Blue Moose in New Hope, and Brian Jeter, Sr.,  Director of Government Affairs at Comcast. Also attending were Bucks County Commissioners Charles Martin and Diane Ellis-Marseglia.