SPSCC Trustee Pays It Forward With a Student Grant Honoring Her Mother

Rozanne Garman has always been thoughtful about where she dedicates her giving. As a trustee of South Puget Sound Community College (SPSCC), she believes part of her role is to inspire students by sharing her own story so that someone might hear it and think: if she could do it, I could too.

Her story, like that of many students sitting in classrooms at SPSCC today, begins with not being able to see the path forward. That shared experience is what led her to create the Fa'au'uga Tanielu Chipman Grant at the SPSCC Foundation. The fund is named in honor of her late mother and is dedicated to helping students move toward their goals.

Rozanne was part of the very first Running Start cohort at SPSCC. It was there that something surprising happened.
“My professors loved what they were teaching,” she says. “Because of their passion, for the first time, I fell in love with learning.”

That experience helped her see possibilities she had not been able to imagine before.

“As an immigrant growing up in a big family, you don’t always know how to get from where you are to a living wage,” she says. “College helped me see that path.”

Along the way, there were people who saw her potential, supported her and opened doors. From her education at SPSCC, to her jobs along the way, to eventually starting her own business, those individuals and opportunities made the difference.

Today, when she walks through campus, she often sees her younger self in the students she meets.

Rozanne’s mother was that same kind of presence in her life. In her 50s, she enrolled at Mt. Hood Community College to study floral design. She made the dean’s list, became active in student leadership and engaged with her chamber and local community. Her degree opened up her world.

She went on to open her own shop, Mum’s Flowers, filling it with the same joyful energy she had always brought to flowers for friends, family, and celebrations.

“My mom wasn’t afraid to be a beginner,” Rozanne says. Even in her final days, she was studying Russian.

After her mother passed, Rozanne found herself thinking about her own journey and the students she sees at SPSCC today. The call felt clear. She would start a grant to honor her mother’s love of learning while helping students stay on track when unexpected challenges arise.

“I really feel that saying is true,” she says. “From those that have been given much, much is expected.”

The Fa'au'uga Tanielu Chipman Grant provides quick-response support for students facing financial challenges. The grants help cover costs such as tuition, tools, rent, car repairs, medical bills, or utility payments that might otherwise derail their progress.

In 2025, Rozanne opened the grant to outside contributors for the first time. She ran the Spartan Race alongside her siblings and invited friends and family to support the fund. What followed moved her deeply. People from across her life, many who had known her and her mother years ago, reached out to contribute.

The fund has since awarded more than 20 grants helping SPSCC students stay enrolled and continue moving toward their goals.

In many ways, the grant reflects the spirit her mother lived by: a belief that learning can begin at any age and that a little encouragement can change the course of someone’s life.