By Marvin Garcia |Staff Writer|

CSUSB Palm Desert campus (PDC)was granted $10,770 by local Coachella Valley rotary clubs on Feb 13. The funds will go to the Desert Rotary Scholarship.

According to Susan Knollenberg, director of major gifts at PDC, the purpose of the scholarship is to keep students in the Coachella Valley by providing financial support with Rotary.

Whether or not the scholarship will be exclusively for upcoming or current students is not yet known since Rotary has not placed criteria, but PDC is confident it will be available for all students.

“The real significance of this has to do with so many individual Rotary clubs agreeing to partner in a scholarship project which will grow and benefit many Coachella Valley students who otherwise would likely have gone to universities outside the valley, and in most cases never return,” said Scholarship Coordinator Ricardo Loretta to the Desert Sun.

Kollenberg further remarked how this donation indicated Rotary support to the Coachella Valley’s first four-year public university and how PDC wants students in the area to have a viable option to obtain a four year degree.

“It is an incredible partnership to have this show of support from local community organizations. We plan to build on relationships such as this,” said Kollenberg.

The 15 rotary clubs, lead primarily by the Palm Desert Rotary, and the Rancho Mirage Rotary Club was selected as the official club of record for the scholarship grant.