Students Take Next Step on Their Path to Higher Education

Recipients are awarded the Bill de la Fuente Scholarship

By Edward Becerra, Education Begins in the Home, Empowering Latino Futures

Bill de la Fuente welcomed nine student recipients, their parents, friends, and sponsors to the 6th Annual Bill de la Fuente Scholarship Foundation ceremony at the San Marcos County Office of Education on June 15.

Palomar College parent/student advocate Carmelino Cruz congratulated the students for their success in high school. He talked with them about this next chapter in their student career, urging them to continue their outstanding efforts at this next level and to reach out to friends, family, and the community when in need.

Next, the Keynote Speaker Cipriano Vargas, the current Board President of the Vista Board of Education, spoke to the students about being the first member of their family to attend college. He told them to reach out to the community for help and to pay it forward someday.

The program then provided a Community Recognition Award to Corie De Anda, a longtime bilingual teacher, the director of the Hermanitas Program of MANA of North County San Diego, and the incoming president of Route 78 Rotary.

The Bill de la Fuente Scholarship Foundation helps build a stronger, better-educated community by providing scholarships to students who have earned them through achievements and who envision participation in higher education, according to its website.

De la Fuente has founded several organizations, geared mostly toward Latinos. One of these is Comerciantes Latinos Asociados, to guide and provide resources to Latino business owners. When he retired from the organization in 2015, the Bill de la Fuente Scholarship Foundation was created in his honor.

The nine scholarships recipients:

Wendy Pablo, Fallbrook, for MiraCosta College; Pablo Ramirez, Carlsbad, MiraCosta College; and Salma Lopez Barron, San Marcos, SDSU, from a Migrant Education Program

Ariele Campos Hernandez, Oceanside High School, for UCSD; Giovanni Rodrigurez, San Marcos High School, Cornell University; Jacqueline Olivarria Cortez, Escondido High School, Cal State San Marcos; Jennifer Galan, Rancho Buena Vista High School, Cal State San Marcos; Midalia Garcia, Escondido High School, Cal Poly Humboldt; Yelenny Hernandez, Oceanside High School, UCLA.

https://www.billdelafuentescholarships.org

https://www.facebook.com/delafuentescholarships/?__tn__=kC

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