Impact Report: Year-Ends 2021 and 2022

Christine Ryland

Christine Ryland: Cañada College alumna and endowed, named fund, and planned gift donor

“Category defying” is one way to describe Christine Ryland’s relationship with San Mateo County Community Colleges Foundation and the District. She is an alumna, daughter of an alumna, and mother of an alumnus, a named fund and *soon-to-be* endowment donor, and an administrator of a planned gift. Foundation staff members don’t think about any of those categories. We know her as a kind, generous, and warm person who truly cares that community college students succeed, as she, her mother, and her son have.

Christine’s three-generation familial relationship with the District dates back nearly 60 years ago, to shortly after Cañada College was founded in 1968. The late 1960s and the 1970s were the height of the international second-wave feminism movement, which focused on issues of equality and discrimination.

While women marched for gender equality, including equal pay, Cañada College initiated a project to help women earn college degrees. Connie Barthold, Christine’s mother, was one of the women who took advantage of this program. “She was a single parent of four children and knew the pathway for a higher paying job was to finish her education,” says Christine. “Cañada College opened the door for that to happen.”

Both Connie’s daughter, Christine, and her grandson have followed in her footsteps at Cañada College. Connie still serves as a proud example of the benefits of a community college education to her family and to other students through the legacy of her planned gift: the Connie Barthold Scholarship Fund. “It was due to the opportunities that my mother received at Cañada College as well as the influence my great grandparents had on her that brought about her involvement with Cañada College as an alumna.”

Connie Barthold transferred and completed her degree in Home Economics at San Jose State. Her start at Cañada College ensured that she could go on to a well-paying career at Sunset Magazine. Christine similarly changed her life through a community college education. She struggled with her studies in high school and was able to graduate early with the help of her school counselor. Although, she had a low grade point average, “the door was open for me to achieve my goal of getting a college education. I knew the value it would have for me for my future and the opportunities I could have with a college degree. Cañada College provided that pathway through its flexible class schedule, the Work-Study Program, and a grant to assist with some of my costs since I was working part-time to support myself.”

In the two and a half years she attended Cañada College, Christine became a straight-A student and graduated with her Associate of Arts degree in Psychology with honors. She then transferred to San Francisco State University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. Again, with honors.

Philanthropy is central to Christine’s philosophy of life. “I was brought up to believe that as one takes the hand extended, you extend your hand back when you can. My hope is that each person helped will impact many others that might not have otherwise received the vital assistance they need.”

Christine’s family legacy of giving has come full circle with her. Currently, her family foundation, the Barthold Family Foundation, has seven scholarships with one on track to be endowed in the next two years. Their vision statement includes education, which will always be part of their foundation, now and for future family generations that follow.

“It was my mother who began this family legacy. Community College is much more accessible to people who desire to further their education but lack many important opportunities that would open the door to a four-year college. It levels the playing field of who has access to higher learning which translates into more pathways for personal success open to them. Each endowed scholarship, through careful investing, will continue into perpetuity. Each scholarship also comes with its unique recipients and their stories. It is exciting to hear where they've been, current successes, and their future goals.”