The 2015 application for the Esperanza Education Fund Scholarship is available at http://apps.esperanzafund.org.

We are thrilled to announce that Esperanza recently received two new grant awards:

• A two-year, $50,000 grant from the Philip L. Graham Fund. This award will support scholarships, mentorship programming, and operations.

• A $15,000 grant from The Meyer Foundation to support communications. This award will be used in part to enhance the Esperanza website and online outreach and engagement tools. The Esperanza Board is currently seeking vendor quotes for the website re-design and related tasks. The request for quotes (RFQ) can be downloaded here. Quotes are requested by Friday, December 19, 2014.

Welcome to our inaugural newsletter! In this issue: updates on grants, scholars, mentors, events, and more!

The Esperanza Bulletin October 2014

Exciting news! We are thrilled to announce that Esperanza has been awarded a two-year, $50,000 grant from the Philip L. Graham Fund to support scholarships, mentorship programming, and operations, as well as a $15,000 grant from The Meyer Foundation to support communications. You should be proud too—your commitment to this work helped lay the groundwork for these generous grants. Scholar Update Santiago Vinueza is one of the 60 Esperanza Scholars you have helped support over the past five years. We know you will be as impressed with Santiago as we are! With his Esperanza scholarship he attended Sargeant Reynold’s Community College and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. He then transferred to Virginia Tech on a full scholarship, all while working two jobs. When we asked Santiago what he would like to say to you, he wrote: “Esperanza helped me in two ways. The first was paying for my education expenses. The second, and the one that means the most to me, is by helping me realize how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to continue studying and reminding me that there’s always hope even when all seems lost. Those two factors enabled me to not only survive this past year but accomplish significant things.” Learn more about other scholars like Santiago that you support through Esperanza by clicking here. Mentor on the Move In addition to providing financial support, Esperanza matches each interested scholar with a mentor. Recently, one of our mentors, Patricia Silva-Santisteban, teamed up with an Esperanza Board of Advisors member to take her mentee, Bibiana Valdes (a 2013 Esperanza Scholar studying engineering at Prince George’s Community College), to the University of Pennsylvania to meet with a Puerto Rican-born electrical engineering professor, Jorge Santiago Aviles. Our volunteers reported that Professor Santiago “could not have been more warm and welcoming. He spent three hours with us, took us to visit several key people, and gave us a tour of his nanotechnology lab.”  Below Bibiana is pictured with Professor Santiago in front of a piece of the world’s first computer, ENIAC, which was built at Penn in the 1940s. Learn more about the Esperanza mentorship program here! Rooftop Reception Thank you to everyone who attended our Rooftop Reception on September 2! We had a great turnout of nearly 100 people, including old and new friends, in spite of the stormy weather. Before the rain started the crowd heard from 2014 Esperanza Scholar Brenda Perez, pictured speaking below. Thanks for all you do for Esperanza! We couldn’t do it without you. - Alex, Alice, Alison, Alvaro, Andy, Francella, Jason, Marie, Maritza, Jason, Roman, and the rest of the Esperanza team CONNECT WITH US Friend us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter SUPPORT US! An easy way to support Esperanza is to shop through Amazon Smile with Esperanza selected as your charitable organization. Simply go to smile.amazon.com, search for The Esperanza Education Fund, and then shop like you always do. A percentage of your purchase will be donated to us. Do this every time you shop on Amazon! Or click here to donate directly.   JOIN US All are welcome at the next Esperanza monthly meeting, on Monday, November 3rd, 2014 from 7:30-8:30pm. RSVP to alison.collier@esperanzafund.org.

» Continue reading “Meet the 2014 Esperanza Scholars”

Esperanza leaders and scholars pose with honoree Donald Graham and Gaby Pacheco. From left to right:  Esperanza co-founders Alvaro Bedoya and Alice Wang, scholar Gloribel Pereira, Donald Graham, scholar Bibiana Valdes, Gaby Pacheco, and Esperanza committee chair Francella Chinchilla.

Nearly 200 friends of Esperanza gathered on Friday night for the anniversary gala at the Carnegie Institute. Celebrating five years of scholarship awards and five years of gala fundraisers at the Carnegie, the evening featured a lineup of performers, guests, and students that made the anniversary especially memorable. Elizabeth Roe and Greg Anderson, the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo, played a set that left the audience thrilled and speechless, and even offered their personal insights into their musical interpretations. After a standing ovation and encore, 2013 Esperanza Scholar Gloribel Pereira spoke to the audience about the obstacles she had overcome to achieve her dream of attending college and how important the support from Esperanza has been in making her enrollment at George Mason University possible. Following Ms. Pereira’s comments, Esperanza leaders presented the first-ever Esperanza Award to Donald Graham for advancing hope in the immigrant community. He was joined by special guest Gaby Pacheco, Program Director of the national scholarship fund, TheDream.US.

Works by painters Naomi Chung, Delna Dastur, Teresa Oaxaca, and Michael Jose Torra, sculptor Patricia Silva-Sanstisteban, photographer Daniel Penchina, and fine jeweler Alberto Parada were on display and for sale, with significant portions of the proceeds going towards future Esperanza scholarships. Art is still available for purchase–please see the featured artists page for details and more information about all the artists.

Thank you for making our anniversary celebration such a success! We had a great time with you, and most importantly, we raised funds that will go towards our next round of scholarships! We’re particularly grateful for the support of our sponsors, the JBG Companies, WilmerHale, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the Raben Group, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, the Washington Regional Transplant Community, Ms. Natalie Wexler, and Ms. Susan Vitka.

If you weren’t able to attend there’s still time to make a contribution to this year’s scholarships.

Please enjoy more photos after the jump and on our Facebook page.

» Continue reading “5th Anniversary Benefit Concert: Extraordinary Music, Special Guests, Inspiring Scholars, and Beautiful Art!”

Esperanza is thrilled to invite you to join us on Friday, March 14th at 8pm in the ballroom of the Carnegie Institution for our fifth anniversary benefit concert featuring the Emmy-nominated and Julliard-trained Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe, “the most dynamic duo of this generation” (San Francisco Classical Voice). The evening will honor Mr. Donald Graham, former publisher of The Washington Post and founder of TheDream.US scholarship. Mr. Graham will receive the first-ever Esperanza Award. The concert will be followed by a champagne reception and art exhibit featuring the region’s finest immigrant artists and artisans, including the painters Naomi Chung, Delna Dastur, Teresa Oaxaca, and Michael Jose Torra, sculptor Patricia Silva-Sanstisteban, photographer Daniel Penchina, and fine jeweler Alberto Parada.

The Anderson and Roe Piano Duo have appeared on MTV’s Total Request Live and NPR’s All Things Considered. Anderson & Roe have toured the world’s leading concert halls with their explosive performances, while also electrifying audiences everywhere through their striking visual re-imagining of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Their most recent album, When Worlds Fade, topped the Billboard Classical charts for over a dozen weeks.

Please consider a patron or host sponsorship – a powerful way to help Esperanza finance new scholarships. We’re thrilled to announce the JBG Companies as a concert host for this event and WilmerHale, the Raben Group, and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as patrons.  All patrons and hosts will be recognized during the gala; hosts will also be featured in promotional materials. A portion of all sponsorships and tickets will be tax-deductible. You may purchase tickets or sponsor this event by using the form below or by contacting us at info@esperanzafund.org.

Thank you for your support!

Please visit our 5th Anniversary Benefit Concert: Tickets and Sponsorship Page to purchase tickets or a sponsorship package.