Changing Students Lives Through Our Year-End Appeal

The OCC Foundation is conducting a year-end appeal, raising money for student success. Here are a few Onondaga Community College students who have benefitted from your support:

Nick Chai

• Started college at a four-year school, took time off, and worked as a waiter and a welder before coming to OCC.
• On the way to earning his Engineering Science degree, Nick earned membership in the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society.
• He tutored fellow students in calculus, chemistry, and physics.
• Was named a PTK All-State student and received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence.
• Now attends the Rochester Institute of Technology where he is majoring in Chemical Engineering.

Frances Perez-Nunn

• Frances was the ultimate "road warrior," commuting from Albany three days a week while she pursued her American Sign Language degree.
• She worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant for a decade, then shifted to Home Care. Eventually she decided she wanted to work with kids at her children's school. She spent two-and-a-half years in a behavioral classroom, then switched to intensive care students. As she watched non-verbal students learn sign language, she realized she wanted to teach it.
• She completed her degree in 2023, thanks in part to financial assistance from the OCC Foundation.

Manu Shergill

• Manu saw Covid is an opportunity to go back to school, so at age 35 he came to OCC and majored in Computer Science.
• Through OCC's Collegiate Science and Technology Program, he was connected with a summer internship at Syracuse University where he helped build a sensor system that could track how bodies of water expanded or contracted in drought or flood conditions. The internship went so well he was hired to keep working there part-time.
• Manu started the Cybersecurity Club on campus and was inducted into the honor society. 

If you are able to support students between now and the end of the year, you can do so by clicking on this link. We'll continue to highlight stories of students who have been impacted by your support.