Gateway Community College (GCC) was honored to receive the Nonprofit Partnership award with longtime partner First Niagara Bank at the 2014 Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce Business Leadership Awards Luncheon. The award was presented on Thursday, October 2, at the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale.

More than 600 business people gathered at The Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce’s (GNHCC) 2014. The event recognizes individuals and businesses that have exhibited exceptional leadership skills, are active participants in business and/or community organizations, and have noteworthy results. The awardees are nominated by fellow chamber members.

Over the years, Gateway Community College and First Niagara have shared a mission to create a competitive workforce by assuring access to education. Together they have impacted the hundreds of people in our community who strive to improve their lives through education.

First Niagara is a strong supporter of Gateway’s students. From their first days in New Haven, First Niagara became a major sponsor of GCC’s largest scholarship fundraiser, providing ten $500 student scholarships each year. They also sponsor the GCC Foundation’s annual Donor-Scholar Luncheon, where scholarship recipients and donors meet and share their stories. Members of the First Niagara management team share their time and talent with GCC by serving on scholarship committees, speaking at student events, teaching financial literacy classes and distributing scholarship information at branch offices.

Paul McCraven, senior vice president of Community Development, is a long-time member of the Gateway Community College Foundation Board of Directors, where he serves as Vice-Chair. When the GCC Foundation announced the programmatic campaign to support the college’s infrastructure, David Ring and McCraven met with GCC President Kendrick to reiterate First Niagara’s commitment to the college and, through its charitable entity First Niagara Foundation, committed a $500,000 charitable grant to the campaign. First Niagara’s support has been recognized by the college with the naming of the “First Niagara Library and Learning Commons,” the signage of which was unveiled at a ribbon-cutting reception hosted by Gateway President Kendrick. The First Niagara Library and Learning Commons at Gateway Community College, with its signature curved window façade, marks a bright and welcoming gateway into the City of New Haven that is indicative of the partnership that offers the promise of a bright future through education. 

GCC is one of 17 institutions of higher education in the system of Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU).  In 2012, after a decade of unprecedented growth, GCC relocated to a beautiful, new LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold campus that is housed on two city blocks in downtown New Haven.