As the Highlands Ranch Community Association celebrated the 20th anniversary of the HRCA’s Community Scholarship Fund in April, 20 students from various high schools around the community were awarded scholarships. 

In 2003, the association created the Community Scholarship Fund to provide post-secondary education scholarships to graduating Highlands Ranch residents and for individuals with special needs. 

For the past 20 years, the Highlands Ranch Community Association has provided more than $651,000 to 402 recipients — high school graduates, those facing adversity and the community’s Therapeutic Recreation Department. 

“The nice thing about this, it’s not funded with assessment dollars,” said Mike Bailey, the Highlands Ranch Community Association general manager. “This is funded through our fundraising events.” 

According to Bailey, the biggest fundraising event is the Beer Festival, which raised more than $50,000 last year.

Scholarships are awarded to those who have shown community leadership through volunteerism in and outside of school, have been involved in extracurricular activities and have demonstrated to be well-rounded students and residents.

Coordinated through the Highlands Ranch Community Association’s Therapeutic Recreation Department, scholarships are also awarded to those with special needs. The scholarship aims to help individuals explore leisure interests, develop skills, have fun and enhance the quality of life for families. 

“Through this extraordinary relationship with CSF (Community Scholarship Fund), we award scholarships to our students with special needs who need financial assistance to join groups or for personal instruction,” said Bailey in a press release. 

This year, staff at the Highlands Ranch Community Association reached out to the administrators and counselors at local high schools to nominate deserving candidates. This spring, the Community Scholarship Fund granted 20 $2,500 scholarships to recipients at six high schools. 

The 2023 Community Scholarship Fund includes four recipients from Highlands Ranch High School, four from Rock Canyon, five from Mountain Vista, five from ThunderRidge, one from Arapahoe and one from Valor Christian High School. 

Although there was not a banquet to celebrate the recipients this year as the community is continuing to come back from the pandemic, Bailey plans to have one next year. 

“We are going to resurrect that next year and have a formal banquet again,” said Bailey. “For next year, we’re going to probably commence that in the month of April.”