Meet Patrick, our January 2024 Sasquatch Celebrity! 

Patrick Forster joined SFCC in August 2018 and serves as the Assistant Dean of the CCS Pullman Center. His professional expertise is in higher education administration, organizational development, and coaching for non-profit institutions. Patrick and his family love the Inland Northwest, where you can find them at community events, in the great outdoors, and, almost always, on bicycles.
 
What CCS Foundation program or scholarship do you support and why? 
I donate to the Pullman Center Scholarship fund because I have witnessed how unfulfilled basic needs create obstacles to the educational success of Pullman students, and sometimes even get in the way of attending class. While other and larger Foundation funds can do heavier lifts for students, the Pullman fund helps students address unexpected financial challenges and stay on track with their studies. Having an institutional resource like the Pullman Center Scholarship meets immediate needs and lets students know we, the employees and friends of CCS, really care about their well-being and success.
 
Why do you choose to donate to the Foundation?
I donate to the CCS Foundation because they do such a terrific job supporting students across our institution. Given our students ' very different challenges and aspirations, I am grateful for the range of Foundation funds available. I give to other causes, though my contribution to the Foundation is my only regular and automatic one because of the Foundation’s excellent record and because I am joining so many CCS colleagues who give generously in support of CCS students. And what a great way to demonstrate to people outside of CCS that we care about our students and that their giving can also make a transformative difference in a CCS student’s life.
 
What is something people don’t know about you? Hobby?
The bicycle has always been important for my travel, work, fun, and vacation. However, during COVID, when bike stores were closed for a while and bike parts were temporarily unavailable, I started to do more than just basic maintenance of our family’s bikes. Now, I spend many a weekend hour fixing drive trains, cleaning and replacing cables and housing, and wrestling with the next repair. I have surprised myself by becoming more patient with technical procedures, especially when I messed up a simple repair or had fixed the problem just the previous weekend. And since I carry basic tools, it’s been great helping other bicycle commuters get home or at least to the local bike shop when unexpected problems have stalled their ride at our Pullman Center.
 

Sasquatch Celebrity is a monthly feature that introduces CCS to the staff who support the CCS Foundation's students and programs.