Cal State Monterey Bay has signed an agreement with Mann Packing to provide a scholarship for the CSUMB College of Business. The Mann Packing Scholarship is committing $10,000 per year for the next five years to students who meet the following criteria:

• Financial need

• Minimum GPA of 3.0

• A submitted one-page essay

• Major in any program in the College of Business

• A student from Monterey County

• A student with a parent or guardian who worked or works in the agricultural or farming sector

• A student who plans to work in Monterey County upon graduating from CSUMB

CSUMB College of Business Dean Shyam Kamath thanked Mann Packing for its support. “This significant scholarship gift enables our most needy students from the Salinas Valley and other farming sector-related communities to have an advantage in pursuing the American Dream,” he said. “It enables them to contribute to our community and the larger society we live in.”

Lorri Koster, chair and CEO of Mann Packing, agrees. “At CSUMB, more than 50 percent of students are first-generation undergraduates,” she said. “We are pleased and proud to provide this assistance to local students who have contributed positively to this community and intend to stay here and contribute more in the future.”

Koster is a member of CSUMB’s College of Business Advisory Council where she learned about the need for scholarships. “We are blessed to have a California State University in our backyard, yet financially a college degree can still be out of reach for many,” she said. “It is our hope this scholarship will make a difference in the lives of many students in the College of Business.”

The Mann Packing Scholarship promotion and selection will be handled by a CSUMB selection committee which will have one representative from Mann’s. The scholarships will be awarded beginning fall 2017.