Rossmoor Scholarships for Community Colleges/GRF 2025

The Rossmoor Scholarship Foundation (RSF) is a volunteer organization of residents of Rossmoor, a senior community in Walnut Creek, California. Each year the foundation awards scholarships to help outstanding local students continue their education.

The scholarships are funded primarily by donations from individuals, clubs, and organizations within the Rossmoor community. Rossmoor Scholarships are for $3,500 each. Students are granted only one lifetime Rossmoor Scholarship. If you are awarded a Rossmoor Scholarship as a graduating high school senior or during advanced secondary education, you may not apply again.

To be eligible to receive a scholarship:

• You must be able to fill out either a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or a California Dream Act Application (CADAA).

• You must be a graduating student from either Diablo Valley College (DVC) or Los Medanos College (LMC). You must be planning to attend a federally accredited college, university, or a vocational training school.

  OR

  You must be a Golden Rain Foundation (GRF) employee, who is a high school graduate and who previously or currently attends an advanced education institution. You are eligible if you have worked for GRF for at least one year prior to the application process and continue to be employed until the scholarship payment has been received by the award recipient. Seasonal or part-time workers must have begun work by April 1, 2023 and have worked at least 1,040 hours in 2023 prior to submission of the application and continue to be employed until the scholarship payment has been received by the award recipient. In order to receive the scholarship payment, you must be enrolled in at least 6 units of classes in a federally accredited community college, college, university, or a vocational training school.

  OR

  You must be a child of Golden Rain Foundation(GRF) employee and the employee meets the GRF employee eligibility criteria described above. You are ahigh school graduate who previously or currently attends an advanced education institution. To receive the scholarship payment, you must be enrolled in at least 12 units in a federally accredited community college, college, university, or a vocational training school.

  GRF employees or their children are not required to have attended or graduated from the community colleges listed above.

 To apply:

• You must have a GPA of 3.00 or higher.

• Your Student Aid Index (SAI) on the FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS) must be no more than $32,000.

• You must fill out the application form completely and submit it by the due date.

• You (and a parent or guardian if you are under 18 years of age and not legally emancipated) must complete the permission form.

• You will be asked to upload a photograph (head and shoulders) of yourself. The photo cannot be done by a professional studio and should be of good quality - at least 2 MB if possible.

• You will be asked to upload the Overview Eligibility of the FSS which contains your SAI (Student Aid Index) score or the summary from the CADAA.

• You will be asked to upload your most recent transcript from the school registrar.

• You must provide an essay of not more than 600 words and it should be written in your own words - text written by others can be included in an essay only if it is shown with quotation marks and if the source of the text is identified. Violation of this requirement may result in disqualification for a scholarship.

• You must request at least one letter of recommendation from an academic teacher.

• You may request optional letters of recommendation from other teachers, an employer, a coach, a mentor, or the head of an organization for which you have volunteered.

All of these steps are explained in more detail in the application form.

Optional Additional Scholarships 

You may also apply for one or more additional scholarships. These are explained near the end of the application. An essay is required for each additional scholarship for which you apply, and you must apply at the time you fill out this application. Only students who are awarded a Rossmoor Scholarship will be considered for the additional scholarships.

Interview and Awards Ceremony

Students who apply and meet all the criteria above will be interviewed by a team of RSF trustees in February. Students will then be ranked, based on their GPA, SAI, essay, application information, and interview. Finalists will be selected by rank for the number of scholarships available that year. An Awards Ceremony is held in May.

To receive your scholarship payment, you will need to submit proof of enrollment in the minimum number of units at a federally accredited college, university, or a vocational training school listed below.

• 12 units for community college graduating student applicants

• 12 units for children of GRF employee applicants

• 6 units for GRF employee applicants

The Rossmoor Scholarship Foundation will send you the verification form.