Endowed Scholarship Fund Aims to Help Latino Students
By Steven Carter, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.
Jan. 31–Two weeks before her high school graduation, Sarah Gonzalez had a portfolio full of good grades and varied school activities. She dreamed of college but had no money to go.
“I was really down,” she recalled. “I thought I would get some scholarships, but nothing had come through.”
Gonzalez began to prepare herself to get a job like her Latina friends from Aloha High School. During summer 2005, however, her luck changed. She was awarded several scholarships, topped off by a $15,000 grant from Legacy Health System through the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
“I had my dreams back,” she said.
Gonzalez, a bubbly 19-year-old junior at Portland State University, wants to become a teacher. She would be the first in her family to earn a four-year college degree.
Thanks to a new endowed scholarship fund announced Tuesday, other Latino students from Oregon and the Vancouver area will have the chance, too. The endowment was launched with $100,000 each from businessmen George Puentes, William Swindells and Joe Weston, $60,000 from the Hispanic chamber and a $250,000 challenge grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust.
Backers hope the fund will grow to $5 million in several years, providing enough earnings that 70 Latino high school students or returning students can get scholarships each year.
Gonzalez, the third of four children of a mother with a sixth-grade education, thought she wasn’t college material. Her two older siblings started higher education but had to drop out for personal and economic reasons.
When she was a high school sophomore, a counselor talked Gonzalez into trying an advanced class in European history. She got an A. Her confidence grew and she started taking as many advanced placement classes as she could.
“I knew then that I could keep up,” she said.
As a senior, she enrolled at Portland Community College full time, earning college credit while finishing her high school diploma. With scholarship money in hand, Gonzalez re-enrolled at Portland Community College, earning her associate’s degree last year. She started at PSU in January as a junior and hopes to finish by June 2008. She has joined the Portland Teachers Program, a program that aims to increase the diversity of the teaching corps in the Portland metro area. Once she gets her degree, she plans to go straight on for a master’s in education.
The Hispanic chamber began the scholarship program in 1994 and has awarded grants to more than 200 students. The need is great, said Gale Castillo, executive director.
“There aren’t as many Latino students who go on to college,” Castillo said. “But even those who do often drop out. We know from research that the main reason is economic.”
The average cost of a year at one of Oregon’s public universities approaches $16,000, including housing and personal costs.
Castillo said the chamber wanted to move beyond annual fundraising to an endowed scholarship fund that would provide help to students on a permanent basis. Nine months ago, the chamber began conversations with the Oregon Community Foundation to find a way to make it happen.
The chamber is seeking donations to both the endowment fund and the annual scholarship drive so that it can continue while the endowment grows.
Gonzalez is still getting used to the bigger, more crowded Portland State campus. But she’s eager to finish her education and get on to teaching. She thinks she can be a model for others behind her.
“Now I view where I came from as no longer an obstacle,” she said. “It’s something I’m proud of.”
Donations to the Oregon Latino Scholarship Fund may be made by calling the Oregon Community Foundation at 503-227-6846 or by e-mail at giftplanning@ocf1.org.
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