2021 Diversity scholarship recipients Elia Gómez Smith and Skylar Holewinski

Diversity scholarship program awards the two students

Congratulations to the 2021 Scholarship Winners

According to the Brewers Association, over 76% of the production staff and 89% of brewers are White. Ballast Point says it’s now offering the Brewing for Diversity Scholarship worth more than $6,000 to people of color who enroll in the Brewing program at UC San Diego.

“Many people don’t think that this is an avenue that’s possible for them. So, there’s an element of communicating that it is possible,” said Ballast Point co-owner Brendan Watters.

Misha Collins was a 3rd-grade teacher and part-time bartender for Ballast Point when she suggested creating the brewing scholarship. Watters agreed to create the fund. Then he hired Collins full-time as Community Engagement Manager.

“This helps all underrepresented, all races, to feel welcomed into this brewing industry and I feel like everyone is really excited about this opportunity, this initiative, and more to come,” Collins said.

Collins came up with the idea for the scholarship a year ago, as the U.S. was reeling from the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and grappling with historic racial inequality. Collins, who is Black, wanted to explore ways that Ballast Point might make a difference.

While craft brewing in the U.S. has skyrocketed in popularity, some of that success has been tempered by the industry’s lack of diversity. Only about 10 percent of breweries are owned by people of color. When it comes to women in brewing, the numbers are similar: A 2018 Brewers Association survey revealed that only 22 percent of breweries are women-owned. Women make up less than 8 percent of brewers.

“I brought up the need to make an impact and support underrepresented groups to one of our owners,” Collins said. She and Watters decided a good first step toward remedying craft brewing’s diversity problem was to offer an annual scholarship to cover the cost of completing the program. Recipients would also be offered a paid internship at Ballast Point.

Kyle Wiskerchen, a program manager at UCSD Extension, said the scholarship follows Ballast Point’s other contributions to the certificate program’s success. In the past, they’ve provided instructors, hosted internships, and hired program graduates.

“The resources they’ve put towards making a social impact and the passion they have — it’s a great way to engage the community and give back to the community,” he said.

The UCSD Extension brewing program, which launched in 2013, already has a track record of helping to diversify the beer industry. Sean Hallman, who’s Black, is the co-founder of Oceanside’s Shadow Ridge Spirits. Joaquin Lopez Orendain went on to start Cerveza Fortuna in Guadalajara. Women who’ve graduated from the program have gone on to work at Amplified Ale Works, AleSmith, White Labs, and Stone Brewing, among others.

In this year, twenty-four people applied for the Brewing for Diversity Scholarship, Wiskerchen said. Applicants went through a rigorous review process that included two essays and an interview with the selection committee. Ultimately, the committee deadlocked on two recipients.

“They both interviewed really well and had different stories and different qualities,” Wiskerchen said. “Misha took it back to the co-owners of Ballast Point, and it was decided that instead of picking one, we should offer the scholarship to both individuals.”

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