March 2023: Brief News & Notes — Alliant Educational Foundation

Our Newest Annual Report

We truly appreciate your support of the Alliant Educational Foundation. Our most recent fiscal year has been highly successful, and we’re delighted to share a few of this year’s highlights in the brief report being released next week.
Among our many accomplishments, we’re most proud of implementing a bold new strategic plan, re-tooling our Innovation/Seed Grants program to better reflect the mission and values of the Foundation, continuing to support hundreds of students through scholarships across the State of California, and expanding our regional Mental Health Consortium to better support under-resourced children, youth, and their families.

We’re proud to share a snapshot of our work in our newest annual report and appreciate your interest in helping to make our communities the best they can possibly be. Read more here…

On April 1st, the Alliant Educational Foundation (AEF) will launch its newest round of scholarship funding. This annual round of funding is made possible, in large part, by the generosity of more than 50 donor-restricted scholarship funds aimed at helping Alliant students across all six California campuses. Approximately $200,000 in tuition assistance will be granted for the coming year. Student applications are due by April 30th.

AEF also approved an additional $500,000 in scholarship support in collaboration with the Alliant International University system, with $250,000 earmarked for a set of diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarships for 2023 – 2024.

In addition, the Foundation has approved the launch of its new “AEF Fellows” program, supporting 20 incoming students across the state in their pursuit of PhD and PsyD degrees in clinical psychology. At scale, this program will support 80-100 such students with multi-year scholarships, peer connections, and more!

Expansion of the Mental Health Consortium

The Foundation officially launched its highly collaborative “mental health consortium” in 2020, helping to place CSPP graduate students in clinical psychology at a variety of youth-serving non-profit organizations throughout San Diego County. At each site, CSPP students bolster the capacity of existing organizations to better address the mental health needs of under-resourced children, youth, and their families.

Recent support to help sustain this initiative has been generously provided by San Diego Foundation’s “Healthy Children & Families Initiative”, the Nordson Corporation Foundation and the David C. Copley Foundation. We truly value and appreciate their support.

And we’re expanding! AEF Board Member Janet Hurwich and CEO Valin Brown recently completed a listening tour to better understand the unmet mental health needs and under-served populations in the San Francisco/Bay Area. Input from a number of funders, direct-service providers, and CSPP faculty members will help shape the direction and focus of the Bay Area consortium over the next several months. Stay tuned!

Student Emergency Fund Launches

Life happens. We believe all students should have access to resources they need to succeed in college and finish their education. The new Student Emergency Fund is an emergency grant for Alliant International University students who are dealing with unanticipated and/or catastrophic life events that might otherwise cause the student to stop or pause their educational goals. The funding is provided by the Alliant Educational Foundation and is managed by a university committee. Applications will be reviewed and grants awarded based on available funds, up to $500 per student per year.

From the Desks of Richard Gevirtz and Mike Pittenger:
Invitation for Alumni Support of CSPP-SD Student Dissertation Expenses

“In this new year, we’re writing to tell you about a special initiative that our program has developed to help our more advanced PhD students with dissertation expenses.

As most of you might remember, the out-of-pocket expenses associated with the PhD dissertation are especially difficult for students to manage, since these costs are not usually covered by loans, scholarships, or grants. We know that a little help would go a long way to help our students produce quality dissertations.

To address this, we have asked the Alliant Educational Foundation to set up a designated fund to assist selected students in completing their dissertations. This new fund, called the CSPP-SD Dissertation Fund, will have Alliant Ed Foundation 501(c)3 status, allowing your contributions to meet IRS tax deductibility rules.

We anticipate giving small awards, each year, to several PhD dissertation students who have submitted approved and completed proposals with budgets.

We hope that you will join us and donate to this very worthy cause, to enable future psychologists under financial strain to complete their studies. We know it will be greatly appreciated! Any donation you choose to give can be made online at www.AlliantEd.org/donate or by check mailed to the Alliant Educational Foundation.”

Read the full invitation letter here…

AEF Elects Four New Board Members

As the Alliant Educational Foundation continues to grow and evolve, so too does our all-volunteer Board of Directors. Since the start of our 2022 – 2023 fiscal year, the Board has elected four new, talented and diverse individuals to continue to provide good governance and policy-direction for the Foundation.

Please welcome our newest members, including:

	Kim Arnett, MBA Grant Writer and Accounting Specialist
	Godwin Higa, MAEd Adjunct Professor, Alliant International University Retired Principal, San Diego Unified School District
	Kris Mohandie, PhD, ABPP Psychologist
	Don Wing, PhD Organizational Consultant