Paul Aschenbrenner

Paul Aschenbrenner, a Political Science instructor at Hartnell for 28 years, started the Pennies from Heaven project in 1985 to collect 1 million pennies to set up a $10,000 scholarship fund after discovering that the national debt had surpassed one trillion dollars. Attempting to conceptualize the idea of one trillion dollars, Aschenbrenner explained to his class that this is equal to one million times one million and encouraged the class to collect one million pennies. Aschenbrenner used the 188th anniversary of President Lincoln’s birthday to kick off this unique effort. A special box made of steel and glass was specially constructed and placed in the Hartnell Student Center to collect the pennies. The pennies were collected from students and community members for over 13 years to reach the one million mark and, for over 20 years, have supplied scholarships to Hartnell College students.

Pictured (from left to right): 2021 Scholarship recipient Katya Hernandez, scholarship committee member Rebecca Skrdla, Paul Aschenbrenner, and scholarship committee member David Shipnuck.