In 2008, a dynamic group of parents, staff, alumni, and community members committed themselves to improving Grossmont High School through the GHS Educational Foundation, a nonprofit 501©3 entity.

The purpose of the Foundation is to enhance the overall educational experience of the students by raising funds to support the needs of the school. The Foundation encourages parents, students, alumni, and community to “Take your memories…Leave your footprints.” Appropriately, footprints are the Foundation logo.   

Sixteen years later, the impact of the foundation is found throughout the campus, including awarding mini-grants to fund special projects to senior scholarships.

2023-24 Teacher Mini-grants

Various departments have benefitted from the mini-grants to fund projects that enrich and facilitate student learning; these are a few of them.

CTE (Career Technical Education) Digital Arts: $290 Digital Arts T-Shirt Design Supplies

Counseling Department: 

$1,250 Senior Post High School Decision Celebration Lunch 

$500 FAFSA Financial Aid Student Drawing of Gift Cards for Completion

$2,500 Yearlong Staff Wellness Initiative

Math: $728 I Pad and I Pencil to Create Clear and Colorful Math Lessons 

Peer Listening: $2,000 UCSD Team Bonding Rope Challenge Course

Vocal Music Department: $2,500 to Help Fund Concert Dresses and Tuxedos

$1,500 Faculty Chaperone Support for Trip to Italy 

Special Education: $1,000 GHS Fruits and Vegetable Garden Growing Supplies.

At the end of the year, Special Education teacher Kendra Whitt emailed the Foundation: “Thank you so much for the mini grant! You funded our garden for our moderate/severe special education classes. It bought us 4 garden beds and over 100 bags of soil. We’ve planted cucumbers, flowers, pumpkins, tomatoes, basil, zucchini, sunflowers and assortment of herbs. The students participated from building the garden beds to emptying bags of soil and planting the seeds. We water them every day and are very excited to see what grows! Thank you!”  Experiences such as these that enrich the students’ learning are just one of the many impacts from the Foundation’s staff mini-grants.

2024 Student Scholarships

For several years, the Foundation has funded senior scholarships from their Endowment Fund at the San Diego Foundation and donations. However, in the past few years, the number of parent, alumni, and retiree sponsored scholarships has grown. Overseen by the Foundation board, the recipients of most of these scholarships are selected through a spring application process.

GHS Foundation Scholarships:

Academic Improvement: Megan Lyon $2,000

Alumni: Hallie Wilcox $2,000

Grace Dilgard $1,000

Arts: Jacob Barnes $2,000

Chloe Herron $1,000

Hallie Wilcox $500

Athletic Challenge Overcomer: Elizabeth Dilgard $2,000

Stephanie Peterson Memorial Scholarship: $2,000

$2,000 YKE Aquatics Scholarships 

Water Polo and Swim and Dive seniors: 

Daniel Drake and Megan Lyon

(In addition, the same previous estate donation continues to generously support the aquatic program through funding the purchase of aquatics equipment.)

Principal Dan Barnes reflects that “The Grossmont High School community, staff, and students are very fortunate to have the support of our Grossmont High School Educational Foundation and Alumni. Each year our board and alums generously give to our students and staff through scholarships for students and mini-grants for teachers. Without the work of the foundation board and President, Amy Conrad, and our museum directors, Connie and Lynn Baer, this tremendous support would not be in place. This is one more huge reason Grossmont High School is such a fantastic place to work and learn.”

In the past 16 years, the financial impact of the GHS Educational Foundation has grown each year.  Its non-profit status has been the impetus for donations that impact the entire Foothiller community in countless ways.  However, without the continued support of Grossmont’s parents, retirees, alumni, staff, and community, none of this would have been possible. We thank them for their support.

If you would like to sponsor a scholarship or mini-grant, please contact next year’s Foundation President Christina Gardner at [email protected] or Dan Barnes at [email protected].  If you would like to donate to the GHS Educational Foundation, please visit their website at foothillerfoundation.com and use the donate button on the home page.

Next month, we will look at the start of the new school year at GHS. 

Visit the GHS Museum this summer: Hours 10-2. Aug. 17, Sept. 21; Sunday, Sept. 15. Contact us at [email protected] or (619) 668-6140.

Upcoming reunions and museum and campus tours (open to all): 

Class of 1962 80th Birthday Reunion: Oct. 17, Anthony’s. Grossmont High School -Class of 1962 Facebook. 

Class of 1964 60th Reunion: Friday, Sept. 20, Catamaran Resort Hotel. Register at: Grossmont64.com or email Ged Bulat at [email protected]. Saturday, Sept. 21, meet at the new GHS Museum at 1 p.m. for a campus tour and visit.

Class of 1967 Their 75th Birthdays Reunion: Sept. 15, brunch at the Brigantine and visit to the Grossmont High School Museum. Email [email protected].

Class of 1974 50th Reunion: Saturday, Aug. 31, Admiral Baker’s Club. Contact [email protected]

Visit our website at foothillermuseum.com to learn more about GHS, past and present.  Contacts: (619) 668-6140 and [email protected].

Top caption: Student scholarships go a long way in helping students succeed. (L-R): Amy Conrad, Tenley Sitze, Lucy Holenstein, Megan Lyon, Elizabeth Dilgard, Hallie Wilcox, Maxwell Short, Jacob Barnes, Chloe Herron, Grace Dilgard, Aidan Dilgard.