The Scholarship Lever: Lifting Lives and Uplifting Communities
East Palo Alto Academy graduate Juan Carlos Zarate knew that being the first in his family to go to college would change his life, but he also realized that he needed to do it for his brothers and sisters. “I want to be the best role model for my siblings,” he told a scholarship committee when he applied to the community foundation for financial assistance to attend Santa Clara University.
For those interested in supporting education, providing college scholarships to determined, deserving students such as Juan Carlos is a rewarding and effective way to meet your charitable objectives. A scholarship not only makes a significant difference in one young person’s life, but its impact ripples out to touch the student’s family, friends, neighborhood and larger community.
Silicon Valley Community Foundation administers a variety of scholarship programs. Our scholarship funds work with scholarship officer Lisa Alvarez to design a customized scholarship program. This can include tailoring eligibility criteria, creating application forms and managing the selection process and disbursement of funds.
All scholarship funds at the community foundation have been established by generous local individuals, corporations or organizations to assist students with their educational pursuits. Whether honoring loved ones or providing for a specific community, each scholarship expresses a deep belief in the power of education to help young people achieve their dreams.
Finding these deserving but underestimated students is not always an easy task. Through three years of honing the scholarship review process, philanthropist Kathy Kwan says, “I’ve been grateful I’ve had the chance to work with Lisa and Silicon Valley Community Foundation. I selected the community foundation because they have local knowledge and connections and they operate in the geographical area that I am interested in. They also have a wealth of experience helping donors to successfully set up and be involved in an individual scholarship fund. The community foundation staff partnered with me to meet my goals, which included a high level of personal participation and a willingness to allow the scholarship to "evolve" into what it is today.”
Over the past three years, our scholarship programs have awarded 819 scholarships totaling $1.9 million to well-deserving students. To date, there are 44 separate scholarship funds established through the community foundation. Those funds award $1,000 to $18,000 to high school, community college and university students. Scholarships are awarded to students at all levels, from the most promising to those just beginning to show academic promise.
This year the number of scholarship applications submitted to the community foundation increased 23 percent and more students than ever reported that their parents had been laid off or that money was tight at home. In these difficult economic times when the cost of a college education is increasingly out of reach for even middle-class students, and when college endowments and financial aid packages are shrinking, there’s an even greater opportunity to make a difference.
Kwan concludes, “When you give a scholarship you’re not just impacting one person. You’re making a difference for the family as a whole. That child serves as an example to his or her siblings. They pass on their experience to their peers. The young people develop higher aspirations. And that inspires the whole community to better itself. That’s leverage.”
For more information about establishing a scholarship fund or making a gift to any of our existing scholarship funds, contact us at donate@siliconvalleycf.org or 650.450.5444.
