Students were invited to eat and raise money for the “Eat for Education” fundraiser that was hosted by Cerritos College’s Project HOPE at Frantone’s Restaurant on Thursday, Sept. 20.

Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is a support program that helps students in the health and science fields by awarding academic scholarships and providing them with training and education.

Project HOPE takes a holistic approach to supporting student success by providing academic support, leadership skill-building activities ,and much more.

“We do a lot of activities including community service for our students. We offer tutoring, we bring guest speakers, we do field trips and for the last several years we’ve been offering scholarships to students,” said Project HOPE Coordinator Maggie Cordero.

Participants attended the “Eat for Education” event and showed their support by dining and having 25 percent of their purchase donated to the 2012-2013 Project HOPE scholarships.

There are two types of scholarships from Project HOPE that are available.

One scholarship is the Promising Scholarship for students who are planning on getting their AA or transferring to a four-year university.

The second available scholarship is the Transfer Scholarship for students who are in a nursing/health program or who are transferring to a four-year program.

Christian Manser, undecided major, is one of the supporters who dined at Frantone’s Restaurant.

He said, “I’m actually a new member of Project HOPE. I’m here because I just want to know more about the program itself.”

Cerritos College Pathways Department Facilitator Carla Yorke also supported the scholarship program by showing up and dining in.

“I’m here to support the students and hopefully get them more money for scholarships. We definitely want to raise as much money as possible and there are different opportunities for people to participate at our upcoming events and support the scholarships,” Yorke said.

Flyers for the “Eat for Education” events were distributed around the college campus.

The next event will be at Five Guys restaurant on Oct. 12 from noon to 6 p.m. in the city of Cerritos, Calif.

For more information about Project HOPE or about how you make a donation, contact Maggie Cordero at (562) 860-2451 ext. 7847 or you can also visit the website at www.cerritos.edu/hope