Woodbury couple gives $100,000 to NVCC Foundation to help female, minority students launch science careers

Woodbury residents Gloria and Larry Pond, both retired NVCC professors, are giving $100,000 to start a science scholarship program for women and minority students at NVCC. The “Scott Pond Science Scholar” program is named for their son, Scott Pond, shown here in 1991 with his skydiving gear and his wife Patty and daughter Caroline. Scott Pond died in a skydiving accident in 1993.

WATERBURY (March 5, 2007) — A Woodbury couple, who are both retired professors from Naugatuck Valley Community College, have arranged to give $100,000 to the NVCC Foundation to create a new endowment program that will help female and minority students prepare for science careers.

Gloria and Larry Pond named the program in the memory of their son, who died in a 1993 skydiving accident. The “Scott Pond Science Scholar” program is expected to offer recipients assistance with a variety of support that could include mentoring, intensive academic advising, field trips to research facilities and help transferring to four-year universities.

Several years ago, the Ponds created an endowed scholarship fund for science students at NVCC in their son’s name with about $70,000 given by themselves, friends and relatives. Recipients for that scholarship are selected each spring based on academic promise in science and a demonstration of the “spirit of adventure” that led Scott Pond to embrace his family’s love of skydiving, as well as other exciting outdoor activities. Scott Pond was also a science teacher.

“Gloria and I decided to single out women and minorities for this new program because some of the most inspirational students we met in our 30 years at NVCC were the women and minority students who came back to school, terrified they would fail, but then ended up being the best in the class,” said Larry Pond, who taught at Choate Rosemary Hall before joining NVCC in 1968 and teaching a variety of science courses.

“We like to think of community colleges as being the ladder for the American dream,” said Gloria Pond, who taught English and literature at NVCC and is also on the NVCC Foundation’s Board of Directors. “A lot of people who go to community college are the first ones in their families to get a higher education, she said. “As a result, we put more good minds to work in our country and the wider community gains stronger citizens, parents, neighbors and employees.”

The NVCC Foundation endowment includes a variety of named scholarships and programs. New endowments can be started with a $10,000 gift, which usually is supplemented over time with additional gifts and can be matched 25 percent through a state program. For more information on planned giving, contact Dean Audrey Thompson at (203) 575-8297.

Located off exit 18 on Interstate 84, NVCC serves more than 10,000 credit and non-credit students from 35 communities across western Connecticut from Litchfield to Waterbury to Seymour to Southbury and Danbury.