The application for the 2011 Esperanza Scholarship is now available. Applications are due March 31.

This spring, the Esperanza Education Fund will award at least $100,000 in scholarships—$5,000 two-year scholarships and $10,000 four-year scholarships—to immigrant students in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, to attend public colleges and universities, regardless of ethnicity, national origin, or immigration status. Funded by a grant from the D.C. Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs (OLA), at least $40,000 will be awarded to D.C. residents.

To apply as a high school senior, please go to: http://apps.esperanzafund.org
To apply as a GED holder, please go to: http://apps.esperanzafund.org/2011/GED/Application.pdf.

Esperanza’s die-hard 5K and 10K team, Team Esperanza, a.k.a. The Phalanx, will be running its last race of the season on Sunday, March 6, at 8:30 am in the Adams Morgan “Vamos!” 5K. If you’d like to join the team as an individual runner or as a member of The Phalanx, who finish the race spelling out E-S-P-E-R-A-N-Z-A across the finish line (see below), please email Alvaro ASAP! A few photos from our last race, the Rockville 10K, are below.

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year from the Esperanza Education Fund! Thanks to your generous support, we’ve had an amazing year. We invite you to read our annual report reviewing what we accomplished in 2010 and previewing what we aim to achieve in 2011. As you read the report (available here), we hope you will consider making a year-end tax-deductible contribution by clicking here:

Highlights of 2010 include:

• Reviewed more than 250 scholarship applications, interviewed 30 finalists, and awarded $75,000 in scholarships to 11 outstanding students.
• Organized a Career Day for 2009 Scholars and matched 2010 Scholars with mentors in their fields of interest.
• Hosted a private dinner at the Peruvian Embassy for our top supporters.
• Received the Hugh A. Johnson, Jr. Memorial Prize from the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia.
• Raised $100,000 for the 2011 Esperanza Scholarship, including a $40,000 grant from the D.C. Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs.
• Held a benefit concert and art exhibit at the Carnegie Institution with flamenco guitarist Grigory Goryachev and classical painter Teresa Oaxaca.

Best wishes for the new year,

Alice Wang
Chair, Board of Directors
The Esperanza Education Fund

Yesterday, flamenco guitarist Grigory “Grisha” Goryachev and classical oil prodigy Teresa Oaxaca stunned a sold-out audience of Esperanza’s supporters and guests at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Grigory began an almost all-flamenco program with Con Garbo y Salero – Farruco by Sabicas and closed the evening with an encore of the precious Recuerdos de la Alhambra, or Memories of the Alhambra, by late 19th century composer Francisco Tarrega.

After Grisha’s performance in the ballroom, we moved to the Carnegie’s marble rotunda, where WilmerHale LLP hosted a champagne reception and exhibit of the work of Teresa Oaxaca. Teresa lived up to her reputation as the youngest Old Master you’ll ever meet. At the exhibit, Teresa debuted several large, imposing works in the Tenebrist style, including “Father Time”–a rich portrait of the artist’s grandfather that recalled a Rembrandt self-portrait. (And if you were there, you know I am not exaggerating!) Teresa is 22.

We cannot be more thankful for Grigory and Teresa’s support. You can order Grisha’s latest CD, Homenaje a Sabicas, from Amazon.com. To see more of Teresa’s work, visit the Quincy Library in Arlington where her work is on exhibit until December 30 (details here). To inquire about purchasing her work or a portrait commission, visit Teresa’s website. We also would like to thank our hosts, patrons, and community sponsors, including WilmerHale LLP, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, APABA-DC, HBA-DC, SABA-DC, and Reliable Printing.

The event already received a wonderful write-up from New American Media. Photos are below, courtesy of EventosVIPpass.com.

Please join us on the evening of Monday, December 6 in the ballroom of the Carnegie Institution of Washington for a private recital by Grigory Goryachev, a Russian-born prodigy of classical and flamenco guitar.  Debuting at age nine in the concert halls of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Minsk, “Grisha” has risen through the ranks of the New England Conservatory and toured the world—from Reykjavik to Jerusalem to Andalucía—to become one of the youngest and most explosive masters of his instrument. You may have heard music from his second album, Homenaje a Sabicas, in the recent Julia Roberts and Clive Owen film Duplicity.

The concert will be followed by a champagne reception and private art exhibit featuring the stunning oil paintings of twenty-two-year-old Teresa Oaxaca, an American-born and Florentine-trained classical painter in the Tenebrist style.

This will be Esperanza’s second winter benefit featuring an internationally-recognized immigrant artist. (For images from last year’s concert featuring Korean-American concert pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe, click here.) It will be a night to remember—for a critically urgent cause.

For tickets and information on how to sponsor this event, click here.

We are thrilled to announce that the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia has named Esperanza a 2010 recipient of the Hugh A. Johnson, Jr. Memorial Award.  This award is presented annually to an individual and an organization who have exemplified outstanding contributions to the Latino community of Greater Washington in the areas of equality, fairness and social justice; over the years, some of the capital region’s top charitable and philanthropic organizations have received this award. Esperanza will be honored at HBA-DC’s annual Equal Justice Awards Reception on Thursday, November 4 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Update: Next Thursday, October 21, HBA-DC, the South Asian Bar Association of D.C., and the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of D.C. will host a joint happy hour with Esperanza at Lupe Cantina (1214A 18th St. NW, just south of Dupont Circle) from 6:00 to 8:00pm. Mark your calendars!

We just got back from our Second Annual Community Picnic at Fort Hunt Park in Arlington.  It was so great to see our scholars, their families, and our dedicated supporters all in one place.  We had almost all of our 20 scholars in attendance, and the energy and diversity of the group was pretty great.

Special thanks to Mexican Jalapeno for generously sponsoring our event.  Use the checkout code “Esperanza” when you shop there and a portion of proceeds will go directly to support new scholars.

We just finished awarding our second round of 2010 scholarships, our New Esperanza Scholars Program for GED-recipients.  This year’s crop of twelve scholars–who will receive $75,000 in funds–hail from Eritrea to Vietnam to Bolivia and all points in between.  Many of them have overcome deep poverty and family tragedy to become budding engineers, entrepreneurs, civil rights activists, and public servants.  They are amazing–and very brave.  We think it is time to celebrate… twice!

Please join us this Thursday from 5:30 to 8pm at Zaytinya (701 9th St. NW) for a Happy Hour featuring Turkish, Lebanese, and Greek meze. You may recognize Zaytinya’s executive chef, Michael Isabella, from Top Chef!

Also, come meet our scholars!  Our second annual Esperanza Community Picnic will be held on Saturday, August 14, from 2 to 5pm at picnic area C-2 at Fort Hunt Park in Alexandria (8999 Fort Hunt Road, Alexandria, VA 22308).  All of our scholars–from this year and last–will be present, and we will, of course, have barbecue, soccer, frisbee, and everything else.

There are not fundraisers.  They are events to spread the word about Esperanza–and show off our incredible scholars.  See you there!

Last night, local NPR affiliate WAMU featured a brief profile of Josue Rosales, our Natalia Aragon Scholar and one of the stars of our 2010 scholarship class.  Josue was interviewed by reporter Kavitha Cardoza, who explored Josue’s rise from humble origins in a farming village outside of Cochabamba, Bolivia, to his academic excellence here in northern Virginia.  Josue will attend Virginia Tech this fall, where he will study engineering.  The story can be found here (halfway down the page); or listen to it directly here or here.

Serious kudos to our Media & Communications coordinator, Cheryl Aguilar!