Scholarship Galvanizes Latino Alumni
According to Patricia Marin, C'90, founding member and President of Penn's Association of Latino Alumni, the project that is galvanizing ALA began with a note from alumna Farah Jimenez, C'90, L'96. "Let's start a scholarship," it said. "I'll help." Patricia contacted Farah right away.
Within weeks, ALA members were working with Penn's Department of Development and Alumni Relations to set up the ALA Endowed Scholarship Fund. Farah stepped in as Chair of the scholarship drive, and just two years into its five-year fundraising effort, the group has exceeded its initial $100,000 goal.
Farah credits "the commitment of Latino alumni" and a generous dollar-for-dollar challenge grant from University Trustee and financial aid champion, George Weiss, W'65, with the initiative's success. With contributions to date totaling over $155,000, the group now aims to raise $200,000. Instead of providing just one scholarship, ALA plans to offer two.
ALA's fundraising achievements should come as no surprise, given the enthusiastic response the group has elicited from Penn's Latino alumni community since its founding three years ago. Patricia Marin recalls being "amazed" by the feedback ALA's early mailings generated. "Alumni wrote back with incredible stories. We saw that they came from all schools at Penn; that they were CEOs, doctors, business people, artists; and that they were everywhere."
Today, ALA and its members are involved in a range of programs that span the campus and the nation - from seminars that bring Latino alumni back to Penn to speak to undergraduates, to alumni receptions held in cities across the country. And ALA is working on sending its members into high schools to recruit and interview Latino applicants.
Just this year, the group awarded its first ALA Endowed Scholarship to sophomore Carolina Mejia, C' 05. If ALA has its way, many more young Latinos and Latinas will not only find a place at Penn, they will stay connected to their alma mater long after they graduate.
Learn more about ALA by visiting www.alumni.upenn.edu/groups/ala.html
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At Homecoming 2002, ALA members had the
chance to meet the first recipient (and her grateful parents!)
of their endowed scholarship. Pictured are (front row, l to r):
Rafaela Torres, C'89; Tatiana Olmedo, C'91, GED, 99; Scholarship
Recipient Carolina Mejia, C'05; and Mr. and Mrs. Mejia. (Back
row, l to r): Carlos Lopez-Reyna, ENG'95, GEE'98; Pedro Ramos,
C'87; Patricia Marin, C'90; John Yun; Edwin Chuy; and Carla Linder,
C'90. |
