OCWS funds scholarships for eight California colleges and universities, including Allan Hancock College (AHC), which offers multiple degrees and certificates in viticulture, enology, wine and food pairing, and wine business. AHC’s viticulture & enology programs typically has about 120 students per year and has a four-acre “practice” vineyard in Santa Maria. Recently, AHC Winery won Best of Class in the 2024 OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition for their 2022 Pinot Noir Rosé (90 points).

In May, I had the good fortune to attend the 2024 Scholarship Awards Ceremony at AHC. The OCWS scholarship was distributed to three students. and we met with one of them, Jacob Tobin. Jacob became very interested in winemaking after reading the books his mother had from an online wine course during the pandemic and he has graduated with his degree in enology this year. He shared with us that he helped make the 2021 Malbec that earned a Double Gold at last year’s OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition. Jacob (shown in photo) will continue his studies at Fresno State this fall and greatly appreciated the OCWS support.

The 2024 recipients for the OCWS Scholarships at AHC are:

• Paul Heald
• Scott Melton
• Jacob Tobin (pictured)

Next month we will be highlighting another one of the colleges/universities supported by the OCWS Scholarship Fund. Just a friendly reminder there is always time to donate to the OCWS Scholarship Fund for 2024.  There are two ways to donate:

1. Mail a check – Make your check out to OCWS and mail it to the OCWS office at OCWS O. Box 11059  Costa Mesa, CA 92627  Attn: Scholarship Fund  A donation letter will be sent to you.
2. Donate Online – Logon 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 Christian, OCWS Scholarship Chair