The Esperanza Education Fund

A new academic year is upon us and with it, a new calendar of activities for the Esperanza Fund. In the months ahead, we’ll be fielding a 10K running team and hosting a private recital with a brilliant young concert pianist of BBC, NPR and MTV fame, Elizabeth Joy Roe. We’re pretty excited.

To kick all of this off, please join us for a Kickoff Happy Hour and Pisco Tasting on Friday, September 25, from 5:00 to 7:30pm at Las Canteras Restaurant in Adams Morgan (2307 18th St. NW). Owner and resident Pisco expert, Gary Lee, will be on hand to prepare custom Pisco cocktails and explain the different varieties of the famous Peruvian brandy. Of course, a portion of all sales of tasty drinks will be dedicated to the Esperanza Fund.

Please RSVP by Tuesday, September 22 to reserve your spot!

Update: Here are a few pictures from the event.  Thanks to Gary Lee and the Canteras staff for a wonderful evening.

Pick up your free local copy of Washington Hispanic this week for an excellent profile of the Esperanza Fund!   The writer, Mitzi Macias, provided an overview of the scholarship, our fun picnic photo, and a short focus piece on one of our six inaugural Esperanza Fellows (the latter of which is unfortunately not on our web version).  Check it out here or download a pdf document.

As the second-largest Spanish-language newspaper in the D.C. region (circulation 35,000), Washington Hispanic is a major outlet for the local immigrant population.  Huge kudos to our brand new Media & Communications Director, Cheryl Aguilar!

This Saturday, Esperanza members, supporters and our brand new inaugural class of Esperanza Scholars gathered to barbecue, frisbee, and play soccer at Fort Hunt Park in Alexandria.  Special thanks to Klass and LatinBag.com for generously supporting the event.

After reviewing 250 applications and interviewing 30 finalists, the Esperanza Education Fund’s Scholarship Committee has selected our inaugural class of six Esperanza Scholars!  Our Esperanza Scholars live in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.  They are truly the cream of the crop.  Many of them have also overcome great adversity to be where they are today.  They include:

• A math prodigy and son of farmers, ranked third in the nation for physics in his native Vietnam, who obtained perfect scores on his International Baccalaureate and SAT exams for mathematics–despite having arrived in the United States only three years ago, and despite working part-time at Popeye’s ever since.  He will study Physics at the University of Virginia (Charlottesville).
• A budding civil rights activist, who immigrated to the United States from Guatemala four years ago, and has since founded a civil engagement program for local students, Through Our Eyes, that teaches students to address the issues of the day–war, poverty, immigration, etc.–through theatre, poetry, and art.  He will study Sociology at the University of the District of Columbia.
• A St. Lucian student who was abandoned by his parents at a young age, and who has risen to become valedictorian and the captain of the soccer team of his inner-city Baltimore high school.  He will study engineering at Morgan State University.
• A Bolivian student who left high school just months of shy of graduation to financially support his father, and who rose from being a dishwasher to being the manager of a local restaurant.  He will study Information Technology at Northern Virginia Community College (Annandale).
• An Indian-American student who speaks five languages and has conducted scientific research at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and George Washington University.  She will enroll in a eight-year B.S./M.D. medical school program at Virginia Commonwealth University.
• A future community-health advocate, who raised her younger siblings in El Salvador while her parents worked to bring her to the United States.  She aspires to open her own community health and nutrition center, and will study Nutrition at Montgomery College.

Thanks to your generosity, they will receive a total of $50,000 in scholarships to attend public schools in the capital region–more than twice the amount we originally had hoped to award!

You will be able to meet our Esperanza Scholars at our First Annual Community Picnic this summer… details soon!

On March 20, we launched our organization at Atlantic Video television studios in the District of Columbia–host to ABC, HBO, Bloomberg, and now the Esperanza Education Fund!   Bolstered by co-sponsorships from 11 local immigrant organizations—including the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the District of Columbia, Ivorian Hope, and the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian-Americans—the evening both highlighted the art and culture of our diverse immigrant community and allowed us to kick-start our fundraising.   It was a huge success—a couple of numbers to explain:

• 250+ The number of people who joined us to celebrate.
• $11,000+ The amount we raised at the event.
• $30,000 The minimum value of the scholarships we will award later this month.
• 200+ The number of applications the Scholarship Committee will soon review…

We reserve a special thanks to our wonderful donors. Your generosity—especially during these difficult times—awed and inspired us. We will not take your vote of confidence lightly.

We will soon announce our first round of scholarship recipients. Until then, please join our new Facebook group to keep up to date on all of our events and to see photos of the event!

The Development and Scholarship Committees met on Sunday, January 25 for the first planning meeting of the year. The following are pictures from our in-house photographer, Annelise Moore.

The Development Committee, led by Alfonso “Poncho” Berthier, organized the first event of 2009 on January 9—a Rosca de Reyes party at the Danzon Art Gallery in Adams Morgan. “Rosca de Reyes” is a traditional celebration held in parts of Latin America for the Dia de los Reyes (Three Kings Day). The “celebration” consists of being with friends, drinking an Aztec hot chocolate drink called champurrad and eating a specially-baked Rosca de Reyes cake.

Co-hosted by the Ex-aTecs, or the Alumni Association of the Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey in Washington, D.C., this event allowed the Esperanza Education Fund to spread the word to more people about its mission and scholarship program. It also allowed Esperanza folks to drink a lot of Aztec hot chocolate. Special thanks to Poncho and Eduardo Barada of the Danzon Art Gallery for organizing our kickoff event for the year!