MiraCosta College Honors Benefactors

Photo: Theresia Heyden and MiraCosta College Superintendent/President Dr. Francisco Rodriguez

At its recent Community Leaders Breakfast, MiraCosta College and the MiraCosta College Foundation presented the Medal of Distinction Awards to honor a corporate partner and a community member who have worked with the college and the foundation in significant ways. This year’s 2012-13 Medals of Distinction were awarded to corporate partner Emerson Network Power and community member Theresia Heyden. 

A college sponsor since 2007, Emerson Network Power has stepped up to the plate several times over the years to help fund scholarships for the college. They have provided more than $65,000 in private gifts to benefit the college and its students. 

In 2008, Emerson sponsored and covered the cost of seven of MiraCosta College’s outstanding students so they could attend a business leadership conference, supported the college’s campaign for the arts, and designed an innovative scholars/internship program in which two students will receive $2,500 scholarships each year and an opportunity to obtain practical experience at one of the Fortune 500 top-ranked electronic companies. Emerson also has endowed a fund established to provide scholarships to students in perpetuity.

Nurse Theresia Heyden, whose efforts to help others stretch back decades and across international borders, has made outright gifts to provide scholarships for current students in the college’s nursing program. Through planned giving, she also has made two of the largest single gifts in the college’s history. In 2011, she gave the college $100,000 for a charitable gift annuity and this year gave another $100,000. 

Throughout her life, she has demonstrated that caring is more than a feeling; it is an activity. Seeing a person in need has meant stepping in and helping in whatever way she could. MiraCosta College’s students are the beneficiaries of her thoughtfulness and the generous spirit that guides her actions. 

“Our students, faculty and staff greatly appreciate the thoughtfulness of Emerson Network Power and of Theresia Heyden. Their gifts have and will continue to change lives by helping students overcome the financial hurdles that too often create barriers to higher education,” said Linda Fogerson, executive director of the MiraCosta College Foundation.

For more information about setting your own scholarship or scholarship program at the college, contact the MiraCosta College Foundation at 760.795.6677.