Distinguished Alumni & Outstanding Retiree Award
The Foundation celebrates the Distinguished Alumni & Outstanding Retiree Award Ceremony each year. The Distinguished Alumni Award was established in 2002 for the purpose of recognizing truly outstanding women and men who have provided an inspirational impact to students and/or the community and for their significant contributions to career achievement and community service. By honoring our former students we hope to inspire today’s student to strive for both personal and professional success. Then, in 2005, the Foundation for MCC recognized its first-ever recipient of the Outstanding Retiree Award and this tradition continues today. Look for this exciting awards ceremony each year in October!

Donor/Student Scholarship Recipient Reception
The Donor/Student Scholarship Recipient Reception was established in 1999 to provide an opportunity for donors to see their gifts in action and to meet the students who benefited from their largesse. Each August, donors and students come together for lunch and fellowship.

Heritage Society Dinner
In 2003, The Foundation established the Heritage Society Dinner, an annual event celebrating its major and planned giving donors whose contributions will fortify the college for years to come and at the same time pave the way for others to join in this spirit. These esteemed donors may look for this honored event in June.

The Ballenger Lecture Series
In 2005 The Foundation for Mott Community College announced the return of The Ballenger Lecture Series, an impressive line up of speakers since it began in 1955 that has included national and international leaders such as Rocket Scientist Werner Von Braun, Journalists Alistair Cooke and Peter Jennings, Art Critic Stanley Kaufman, Talk Show Host Geraldo Rivera, Writers Alex Haley and William Buckley, Humorist Art Buchwald and Black Activist Julian Bond.

The Ballenger Lecture Series was created in 1955 through a generous gift by the Ballenger Trust to enhance educational opportunities for students of MCC as well as create a public discussion of issues facing the greater Flint community. The Ballenger Trust underwrites the necessary finances to offer a free lecture series and create a Ballenger Chair at MCC to provide in depth instruction into urban studies.

In April of 2005, the series was launched with nationally renowned Film Director Spike Lee.

Other speakers since then have included Bill Johnson, Mayor of Rochester, NY; Lech Walesa, former President of Poland and the author of the Solidarity Movement.

On April 3, 2007, Harry Belafonte was warmly received on campus. Comments included: "Inspirational; thought-provoking; educational and fun"; "Something positive for the community and city of Flint"; "He planted seeds that will grow & create positive change".

Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center spoke on cultural and racial tolerance on October 4, 2007. Comments included: "Mr. Dees was very inspirational.” “I liked most his passion for fairness and justice."

Dr. Jared Diamond, professor of Geography at UCLA and Pulitzer prize winning author of "Guns, Germs and Steel", which explains the environmental and geographic reasons why certain human populations have flourished, was The Ballenger's guest speaker on April 17, 2008. One attendee commented, "What I liked most about Dr. Diamond's lecture was, apart from specific examples, his insistence that the future is in our decisions." Another attendee noted, "I liked his bolder metaphor for larger global problems — also his examples about the problem of gated communities."

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