Create college opportunities for Latino students

Thank you for your support of our community’s Latino students!

Your donations are having an impact, right now. This academic year, SLI is serving a total of 63 high school scholars in Harrisonburg, Richmond and Winchester, offering them rigorous academic challenge with university partners, leadership development opportunities, supportive mentorships, and college scholarship awards.

Your support is life changing. Among the 17 graduating SLI scholars this spring was Yamillet (John Handley High School, Winchester), who said:

With the college preparation and mentorship, SLI has helped me feel more confident in taking initiative on my own. The college assignments handed to us helped me achieve more in my regular classes by analyzing more thoroughly based on what I had learned from SLI. The community that SLI helps bring together among the Hispanic students, over all, inspires me to become an example for all first-generation immigrants that are in my position.

And SLI alum Rubi, a graduate of the University of Richmond who went on to work at an S&P 500 company, said:

My parents didn’t go to college, so they didn’t know the whole process of the applications, the essays, any of the pre-college tests, or anything. I relied a lot on my school teachers as well as school counselors, but also – and more than anything – SLI.

Yamillet’s and Rubi’s reflections show the importance of the personal interactions that take place during high school between SLI scholars and mentors, teachers and university staff and faculty. That time is well invested: In 2019, graduating SLI scholars were admitted to 15 colleges and universities, and offered support packages valued at nearly $960,000. 

Even these levels of funding, however, can leave gaps that students of need may struggle to fill. That’s where SLI supporters have direct impact by funding the largest portion of SLI’s budget: scholarship and computer awards, which in 2019 totaled $64,000. For the 2020 fiscal year, SLI has budgeted $70,000 for scholarships, computer awards and dual enrollment tuition assistance.  

SLI supporters contribute to SLI for many reasons, such as these (paraphrased):

• I was a first-generation college student, and a scholarship award made it possible for me to earn a degree. I want to support students just as I was supported.
• My business employs people who are Hispanic, and I want to support their community.
• The entire foundation board was impressed by your work. As we are located next to our local high school, we are of course interested in the students there, as well as others you help. 

SLI’s exciting and hope-filled work of creating college opportunities and providing scholarships for Latino scholars is possible only because of your generosity.

Thank you! 

Links:

• http://www.svsli.org

SLI continued its successes this year, helping the 2019 cohort of scholars access college opportunities, gain recognition for their achievements, and secure funding to help pay for their higher education:

• SLI scholars were admitted to and offered support packages at Bridgewater College, Eastern Mennonite University, George Mason University, Georgia State University, James Madison University, Liberty University, Lord Fairfax Community College, Mary Baldwin College, Marymount University, Old Dominion University, Radford University, Shenandoah University, University of Mary Washington, University of Virginia, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

• The 12 SLI scholars who graduated from Winchester’s John Handley High School and Harrisonburg High School were granted $43,000 in SLI college scholarship awards and $11,000 in SLI computer awards. These awards will help to fill a critical gap in covering expenses for their first year of college.

• Thanks to new financial backing from the Richmond area, this year Shenandoah Valley SLI expanded its support to include SLI scholars in Richmond. These generous donations allowed SLI to award $10,000 in scholarships to members of the cohort of five graduating high school students. The Richmond SLI program is directed by Dr. Peter Iver Kaufman, professor at the University of Richmond and founder of the original SLI at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

• SLI teachers and professors also helped to connect scholars to additional funding opportunities that recognize academic merit and leadership development. In Harrisonburg alone this year, graduating SLI scholars accepted nearly $470,000 in college awards and support grants from the institutions they will attend. These awards included a JMU Centennial Scholarship, two JMU First Generation Scholarships, an Ace Scholarship at JMU, two McKinney Ace Scholarships at Bridgewater College, and a Virginia Merit award at VCU. Several students also received local awards totaling $8,000 from the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs of Harrisonburg and the Harrisonburg Education Foundation. 

This summer, SLI scholars in Winchester, Harrisonburg and Richmond are involved in a variety of activities such as volunteering at a homeless shelter, shadowing university students doing research, and developing literacy skills. Additional activities include employment and participation in leadership conferences such as the Hispanic College Institute at Virginia Tech and HOSA-Future Health Professionals.

We are already preparing learning and leadership opportunities for the new academic year, and a new grant of $6,000 from Wells Fargo will help cover anticipated costs associated with SLI’s Early College curriculum, leadership development programming and computer awards. 

Thank you for your support of this important, ongoing work.

Links:

• www.svsli.org