Suffolk Community College Students Earn 'Stay on Long Island' Scholarships

Twenty-seven Suffolk County Community College students—among them, four residents of the East End—have been awarded Stay On Long Island Initiative (SOLII) scholarships that will provide full tuition to further their educations at Long Island colleges and universities.

Those East End students being Ana Catalan of Riverhead who will be attending LIU Post, Veronica Chumbi of East Hampton who will be attending Five Towns College, Jessica Gutierrez of East Hampton who will be attending Adelphi University and Evelyn Diessler of Hampton Bays who will be attending LIU Riverhead.

Conceived in 2010 by Suffolk County Community College President Dr. Shaun L. McKay, the SOLII scholarship program to stanch Long Island’s “brain drain” by keeping talented, motivated students on Long Island.

Approximately $640,000 was awarded to the 27 SCCC students. Overall, the program has awarded more than $3.7 million in scholarships to 116 SCCC students since its start.

“The SOLII scholarships help our graduates achieve their academic dreams by continuing their education at quality four-year colleges and universities right here in our region,” McKay says.

Other recipients are Loic Moussoh, Celesse Vazquez, Sarah Nangeroni, Daniel Dellapina, Samuel Zang, Megan Meyers, Allison Brown, Thomas Pirrone, Brianna DiPaola, Courtney Bocchieri, Sanjib Dey, Alison Sweet, Gary Salgado, Rachel Hankers, Diana Bashirova, Robert Jannelli, Victoria Lohwasser, Mary Katherine O’Connell, Carissa Shevlin, Yvette Adams, Tricia Wildman, Marissa Klassert and Cahide Temel. 

Some of the partnering four-year Long Island colleges and universities included in the scholarship are Stony Brook University, LIU Riverhead, St. Joseph’s College, Dowling College, Briarcliffe College, New York Institute of Technology and Adelphi University.

The SOLII scholarship is only available for students who maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.75 and are transferring into Long Island colleges or universities.