OCWS funds scholarships for eight California colleges and universities, including Sonoma State University in Santa Rosa. Unlike some of the other institutions we support that focus on viticulture and enology, Sonoma State University focuses on the business side of the wine industry with its Wine Business Institute.
The Wine Business Institute was formed in 1996 as a partnership between the wine industry and the School of Business and Economics at Sonoma State University. WBI offers undergraduate degrees, an MBA and an Executive MBA. The program currently has 85 undergraduate and 55 graduate students. It also offers industry certifications in such areas wine industry finance and accounting, wine business management and wine entrepreneurship.
The program awards about 350 professional certificates each year. For all its degrees, WBI aims to give students real world experience in the wine industry. It also is an official member of the Viticulture and Enology Science and Technology Alliance National Center of Excellence. VESTA consists of 17 university and two-year programs across the country with the goal of VESTA of providing students with a foundation of the science, mathematics and technology skills needed for a productive career in the grape and wine industry.
WBI is very excited and appreciative of the OCWS scholarship contributions to their program. They recently invited several OCWS board members to their alumni gathering at Brewery X in Anaheim.
Just a friendly reminder there is always time to donate to the OCWS Scholarship Fund for 2024. There are two ways to donate:
- Mail a check – Complete your check using the same instructions as above, and mail it to the OCWS office at OCWS, P.O. Box 11059, Costa Mesa, CA 92627; Attn: Scholarship Fund.
A donation letter will be sent to you.
- Donate Online – Log on to your account at OCWS.org and go to the scholarship donation page: OCWS.org/product/scholarship-donations/. You can make your donation online and print a receipt for tax purposes at the same time.
—Damian J. Christian, Scholarship Chair