Scholars Latino Initiative Scholarships

Scholars Latino Initiative is celebrating the close of another year of outstanding growth and service. This past year alone, SLI participants racked up nearly 8,000 hours of community service. SLI’s dedication to service helped earn UNC-Chapel Hill a spot on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, a prestigious recognition for commitment to service and civic engagement. SLI was specified as one of five organizations that helped the University earn this distinction. We’d like to highlight one of this year’s outstanding graduates. Oswaldo “Oz” Contreras, a SLI program participant and student at Jordan Matthews High School, earned the prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholarship to attend UNC-Chapel Hill. His parents, who completed only elementary school, escaped a civil war in El Salvador. Oz excels in his AP classes, serves as captain of his school’s soccer team, translates his family’s bills and mail, and frequently wakes up before dawn to earn money before school starts. Oz’s story was recently featured on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. (See it here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#27200009) The Morehead-Cain, widely recognized as one of the most distinguished undergraduate scholarships in the world, covers full tuition and all expenses for four years of study, as well as summer enrichment programs and grants for personal exploration.

To raise awareness and scholarship funds, SLI hosted a benefit dinner on February 27th , 2009, in the FedEx Global Education Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. The dinner, which drew nearly 150 guests, featured campus “celebrity waiters,” including as Rhodes Scholars, the Student Body President, Chancellor Emeritus Moeser, favorite professors, and members of the women’s national championship soccer team. Douglas García, Assistant Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia, was the keynote speaker, addressing issues regarding Latinos in education. SLI mentors and mentees also shared their personal stories with guests.

Finally, A Home on the Field, by SLI board member Paul Cuadros, was recently selected as the 2009 Summer Reading Program book at UNC-Chapel Hill which is read by all entering freshmen. The book chronicles the story of a Latino high school soccer team in Siler City, where SLI began. A Home on the Field addresses many issues affecting Latino immigrants in North Carolina, telling a story of incredible perseverance in the face of tough obstacles.

SLI is making a marked difference in the lives of our scholars and their communities, and we look forward to your continued support as our program grows!