COLLEGE? IT’S FREE!
Published in the March 28, 2026 edition.
College decision day is approaching rapidly. It’s an anxiety-riddled time for parents and students alike.
Where should I go? How will I pay?
Luckily, for those looking to stay on the Eastside and continue their education at Cerro Coso Community College in either Bishop or Mammoth, scholarship opportunities exist.
Made available through funds from Eastern Sierra Foundation (ESF) in Bishop, and the Mammoth Lakes Foundation (MLF) in Mammoth, these scholarship programs cover full tuition and $500 for books.
It’s the type of scholarship that makes higher education feasible for everyone on the Eastside.
The hitch? Applicants must be residents of Inyo or Mono county (depending on which campus they’d want to attend) for one year.
For the scholarship through MLF at the Mammoth campus, recipients must also be graduates of an Inyo or Mono county high school.
Students funded by ESF are required to take nine units (the equivalent of three classes).
The MLF program, conversely, is flexible with the courseload volume, but mandates that scholarship recipients complete ten hours per month of community service hours in Mammoth.
Recipients also must re-apply for either the ESF or MLF program each semester to secure their aid.
“Our scholarship program has really developed to meet the needs of the community,” said MLF Scholarship Director Elizabeth Root. “We are willing to work with any student that has a pathway they’ve worked out with a counselor, if they’re taking one class at a time because they’re working full time, or caring for their parents, or have other obligations.”
Currently, 19 students receive a scholarship from the MLF and 71 receive funding from ESF.
The students range in age from recent high school grads to those in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. Last year, ESF funded a scholarship for an 80-year-old individual.
“That was super special,” reflected Julie Faber, the president of ESF. “They didn’t get to complete their AA when they were younger. It was their lifetime goal, and they did it.”
Both ESF and MLF also offer transfer scholarships if a student wishes to continue their education past the Associates degrees they earn through Cerro Coso. ESF dolls out two annual transfer scholarships of $10,000 to complete the final two years of higher education at any accredited university.
Similarly, MLF awards one student per year a $10,000 scholarship to attend any California State University (CSU), the University of Nevada Reno (UNR), or a University of California (UC), called the Dave Scholarship to honor Dave McCoy. The organization also awards the same financial support for a student pursuing a degree in healthcare, dubbed the Roma scholarship, in memory of McCoy’s late wife.
Separate from ESF, the Inyo County Office of Education also offers scholarships for students wishing to finish their Bachelor’s degree at UNR through the Inyo Promise program. If a student obtains a minimum 3.0 GPA from Cerro Coso in Bishop, they would be eligible to receive around $7,524.25 per semester. If they earn between a 2.75-2.99 GPA, this scholarship covers roughly $5,248 per semester. Each year, the office also takes 8th and 10th graders to UNR’s campus to look at the dorms and sit-in on classes.
“Part of the goal is trying to get more students involved,” said Barry Simpson, Inyo County Office of Education superintendent.
Despite accomplishing similar goals for students on the Eastside, funding for MLF and ESF is wildly different. MLF’s scholarship programs are funded entirely by large, individual donations, and the organization is run by a paid staff. On the flip side, ESF operates as an entirely volunteer board.
“We do as much as we possibly can with as little expenditure,” Faber said, “We try to fund everything back into the community.”
The scholarships from ESF are funded instead by a million-dollar-endowment donated by the Inyo County Office of Education in 2019. The endowment came from the office’s general fund, and enables the program to continue in perpetuity.
