santarosa.edu/doyle-scholarships. Depending on several factors, the scholarship is generally $1,200 per year for full-time students. For those with different courseloads, the amount is prorated. Scholarship recipients have gone on to universities including the University of California at Berkeley, Stanford and Cornell universities and UC Davis, Cutcher says. “They go everywhere.” Simmalaychanh is leaving Santa Rosa Junior College at the end of the spring semester. He has applied to several universities, with UC Irvine his top choice. Long-ago scholarship recipient Ramsay Brown graduated from Santa Rosa Junior College in 2005 and went to San Francisco State University. “The Doyle Trust Scholarship made it possible for me to attend Santa Rosa Junior College,” he says. Brown graduated from SF State with an MBA in 2010. In early 2011, he joined Bank of Marin, leaving in 2019 to work at Exchange Bank—the source of the scholarship that got him started over a decade earlier. He is currently a vice-president and commercial relationship manager. Brown is just one of many Sonoma County business and community leaders who received the scholarship, Cutcher says. Doyle Scholars pursue a variety of careers—from medical doctors, lawyers, researchers, teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers, “anything offered at the college,” she says. “When we have high school graduation ceremonies, often, the people who have received scholarships in previous years are asked to stand, and half the audience stands up,” Cutcher says. Schrader says, “Frank Doyle didn’t want us to merely participate in community events. He wanted us to be leaders, to use our influence to make a difference.” He adds, “At the end of our lives, that’s what it all amounts to—what difference did we make on this earth? For Frank Doyle, leadership wasn’t a noun; it was a verb—a call to action.” g Santa Rosa Junior College was founded in 1918. Above, students and faculty from its early years stand in contrast to its 21st century incarnation, right, where tens of thousands of students have benefited from the Doyle Trust. [Images courtesy of SRJC]
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January 2025
NorthBaybiz 41
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