Hispanic Scholarships
As an educator for over 20 years, a high school administrator for the past 12 years, an Hispanic, and the parent of a freshman, I know first hand how daunting preparation for college can be. Fortunately, there are several things that can be done in order to prepare your child for a scholarship and many Hispanic scholarships are available.
A good starting place is the National Hispanic Institute, an organization started in 1979 that assists promising Hispanic youth with the college admissions process and with the development of their leadership potential. Their website espouses college and university visits that are specially designed to encourage high school age Hispanic students to aspire to take leadership positions in society.
The Kappa Delta Chi sorority also offers competitive scholarships for Hispanic women in order to access their first year of college.
The Hispanic College Fund is also an excellent resource for aspiring Hispanic college youth. Their mission is to provide "talented and underprivileged Hispanic youth with vision, mentors, resources and scholarships" (Hispanic College Fund website). Last year they provided over $1.8 million to 615 youth.
Finally, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, headed by Sara Martinez Tucker, has the goal of doubling the rate of Hispanics earning college degrees by 2010.
Finding the funding sources is half the battle. After that initial step, aspiring applicants need to complete the application, which often includes an essay, and try to distinguish themselves form other applicants as the most worthy. This is where applicants find the most challenge. Finding guidance personnel at the school is often the best first step. They have staff members trained, ready, and able to assist. Other alternatives are finding for-pay, web-based resources.
A great one-stop resource for heading you off in a productive direction that should lead you to a gold mine of financial resources is
The Scholarship and Grant Guide.
It is a for-pay service but the small investment is worth it! Click on the link to their site (click on the name, above) to see what they have to offer.
Also, when it comes time to write an essay, you'll want to have every advantage. Here's a resource that will give you that leg up. Again, it's for-pay, but well worth the investment:
Essay Writing Advantage.
In any case, the goal is to gather as much financial support from as many different sources as possible because college can be an expensive proposition and our Hispanic youth deserve the opportunity to access those institutions of higher learning by earning those Hispanic Scholarships.
