For the second year running, Allan Hancock College’s Fire Academy won a grant through the Metallica Scholars Initiative, which will cover scholarships and the cost of textbooks, protective gear, and other training materials.
“When I first heard it, I was like, ‘Wait, Metallica, like the band?” first-year Fire Academy student Conner Lee said. “I listen to them all the time in the gym. So, it was kind of ironic and funny.”
Lee had dreamed of attending the Fire Academy ever since he learned his father was an alumnus in the ’90s. Hancock receiving $50,000 through the Metallica Scholars Initiative eased the financial stress that could have crept in after being accepted.
“It’s just been really helpful not having to coordinate water bottles and books,” Lee said. “That’s a big thing, having to buy books. It helps with tuition and purchasing welding gear.”
The Metallica Scholars Initiative is the workforce education grant program created by the band’s nonprofit All Within My Hands Foundation and the American Association of Community Colleges. Hancock is one of the five California colleges supported by the Metallica Scholars Initiative.
The college’s Fire Academy first caught the Metallica nonprofit’s eye in 2025, thanks to the annual Hancock Women’s Fire Camp.
‘Even if there wasn’t a financial benefit there, just to see somebody of that stature known throughout the world that said, “Hey, Allan Hancock … Fire Academy, we support what you’re doing out there. We’re behind what you’re doing with those students and preparing future firefighters,“ is amazing.‘
—Leonard Champion, Allan Hancock College Fire Academy coordinator
The one-day camp is open to all women between 15 and 25 years old. They get to learn real-world skills like rope rescue, hose handling, and fire service-based fitness that Fire Academy students are constantly exposed to.
According to Fire Academy Coordinator Leonard Champion, the school’s promotion of the camp on social media led to conversations between Hancock’s grant program staff and the Metallica foundation.
“They were impressed with our first-year data and results, so we were approved for Round 2. … Each year you apply, they tier down a little bit,” he said.
Last year, the grant money paid for textbooks for all 64 students across the spring and fall classes. They also received $400 scholarships. Students will receive scholarships this year, too, but the amount may vary because of the reduced grant funds.
“We’ve got to figure out what other equipment we need to buy,” Champion said. “We’re going to be filling any further gaps that we have in our equipment cache and inventory. But we’re definitely in a better place than we were over a year ago.”
The cost per student for college units, certificates, gear rentals, equipment, and uniform totals $4,000, Champion estimated, which is the average for any college fire academy in California.
“Some people have families, and they’re having to not work for four months,” he said. “A lot of them have prepared to remove themselves from the workforce because they’re here five days a week, 11 hours a day that’s all-consuming of your time.”
To Champion, Metallica’s involvement is a surreal full-circle moment.
“In high school, that was my band. I went and saw them up in San Francisco in ’89,” he said. “Even if there wasn’t a financial benefit there, just to see somebody of that stature known throughout the world that said, ‘Hey, Allan Hancock … Fire Academy, we support what you’re doing out there. We’re behind what you’re doing with those students and preparing future firefighters,’ is amazing.”
Highlight
• Central Coast AirFest will return to the Santa Maria Airport on Sept. 12 and 13. The event will feature a longtime favorite, aerobatic pilot Vicky Benzing and her red World War II-era trainer aircraft PT-17 Boeing Stearman. Purchase tickets at centralcoastairfest.com.
Reach New Times Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal, from the Sun’s sister paper, at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in September 10 – September 17, 2026.
