(Butler, PA) A 19-year-old Butler County Community College student who works 15 hours a week, volunteers as a youth girls lacrosse coach and earned president’s list honors in fall 2025 is among 13 from Armstrong County selected to receive BC3 Education Foundation scholarships for the 2026-2027 academic year.

The Armstrong County residents were among a record 400 BC3 students who applied for 166 BC3 Education Foundation scholarships for 2026-2027 and received financial awards and ranging from $500 to $3,000.

Isabel Cigola, a general studies student from Kittanning and a 2025 graduate of Armstrong Junior-Senior High School, chose BC3 @ Armstrong to begin her pursuit of becoming a social studies teacher.

“I seriously couldn’t ask for a better introduction to college,” Cigola said. “I really feel that. I have only good things to say about BC3 to anyone who asks me about it.

“You’re not just going to learn. It’s more like a community. Everybody, everybody wants everyone to succeed here, which I really appreciate.”

Cigola works an average of 15 hours a week in the service industry, is entering her second year in assisting in coaching fourth- through eighth-graders in the Armstrong Youth Girls Lacrosse League and received the $1,205 Daltorio Family Scholarship for the 2026-2027 academic year.

“That made my step of becoming a teacher even more possible,” Cigola said. “I just feel completely blessed and honored by the fact that there are people who help students. Education is so important. Different community members giving back to BC3 is definitely amazing.”

The BC3 Education Foundation was established in 1985 as a charitable organization that acquires and manages private funds for the benefit of BC3. The foundation administers scholarships created by businesses, college alumni and employees, fraternal and other nonprofit organizations, and private individuals.

Architects, business leaders, county commissioners, educators, judges, physicians and other health care professionals, and university athletic directors and coaches are among those who began their education at BC3.

 

“They believe in BC3, and they are looking to help students in the community. They see what BC3 has done and what our graduates have done.”

-- Bobbi Jo Cornetti, scholarship and development coordinator, BC3 Education Foundation

 

Donors have also designated their BC3 Education Foundation scholarships to be awarded to BC3 students such as breast cancer caregivers or survivors; first responders; high school dropouts who earned a general equivalency diploma; single parents with custody of a minor; single, separated or divorced females. Eight were available to the college’s student-veterans.

“They believe in BC3,” said Bobbi Jo Cornetti, the foundation’s scholarship and development coordinator, “and they are looking to help students in the community. They see what BC3 has done and what our graduates have done.

“They maybe heard about others who have helped students at BC3 and they reach out to us because they are looking for a way that they can help students too.”

The college’s affordability, financial aid options and BC3 Education Foundation scholarships enabled 82 percent of BC3’s Class of 2026 to graduate debt-free.

Students registered in any BC3 associate degree, certificate or workplace certificate program or who attend any BC3 location or study online are eligible for BC3 Education Foundation scholarships, Cornetti said.

 

“This helps me tremendously because it allows me to focus more on my studies at school than on how I’m going to pay for college.”

-- Stefani Myers, Kittanning, BC3 registered nursing student

 

Also receiving scholarships from the BC3 Education Foundation for 2026-2027 were Kennedy Bure, Kyle Burke, Isabella Jack, Ruth Johns, Ashley Maurer, Alana McCausland, Stefani Myers, Ivie Slusar and Isabella Thompson, each enrolled in the college’s registered nursing career program.

Bure, of Ford City, received the $500 Lucille Shapiro ’73 BC3 Alumni Legacy Scholarship; Burke, of Worthington, the $1,635 Kenneth R. and Nancy M. Tack Nursing Scholarship; Jack, of Worthington, the $500 Mary Cranmer Huff Scholarship and Johns, of Kittanning, the $785 William and Mabel Douthett Scholarship.

Maurer, of Cowansville, received the $1,846 John “Stephen” Shaffer Memorial Scholarship; McCausland, of Rural Valley, and Thompson, of Kittanning, the $2,000 Gary G. Griwatz Scholarships; Myers, of Kittanning, the $1,635 Kenneth R. and Nancy M. Tack Nursing Scholarship and Slusar, of Apollo, the $410 Basil and Ruth Walter Scholarship.

“This helps me tremendously because it allows me to focus more on my studies at school than on how I’m going to pay for college,” Myers said. “I’m truly grateful for the opportunity to be a recipient of it.”

 

“This scholarship will help me focus more on my academics with less financial stress.”

-- Hayven Lookabaugh, Leechburg, BC3 engineering student

 

Hayven Lookabaugh, an engineering student from Leechburg, received the $2,503 Susan E. Andre ’70 Scholarship; Lily Moffatt, engineering, of Kittanning, the $785 Arthur O. Black Scholarship; and Kayla Round, physical therapist assistant, of Kittanning, the $3,000 Leanne Heaton Memorial Scholarship.

“This scholarship,” Lookabaugh said, “will help me focus more on my academics with less financial stress.”

Jack and Round are also members of BC3’s Rho Phi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, an international academic honor society for two-year colleges and programs; and Maurer is the chapter’s vice president for fellowship.

Jack earned president’s list honors at BC3 in fall 2024 and was named to the dean’s list in spring 2025. Maurer was named the president’s list in fall 2025 and Slusar, to the dean’s list in fall 2025.

Cigola, who also takes online courses, and Round earned president’s list honors in fall 2025.

Students who achieved a cumulative grade-point average of 3.75 or higher in a semester are named to BC3’s president’s list; and those with a GPA between 3.5 to 3.74 to the dean’s list.

“Going to BC3,” Cigola said, “was the best decision I have made. Not only financially, but I am getting the same education, if not better, than at other places.”

Applications for 2027-2028 will be available in April.