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Date: 5/16/2023
HOLYOKE — The Latino Scholarship Fund will award 12 Latino high school seniors $1,500 scholarships at its annual banquet on June 8. Recipients are chosen through the scholarship application process and selected on the basis of need, academic achievement and community involvement.
Over the last several decades, the Latino Scholarship Fund’s mission has been to provide scholarships to college-bound Latino students. The fund has awarded more than 250 scholarships since its beginning and continues to try and do more. The banquet itself began in 2007 as a way to recognize these students.
“We are constantly evolving and work endlessly to support our students and our community,” said Cesar Cruz, director of communications for the Latino Scholarship Fund. “We hope to one day be able to increase the scholarship amount and to even increase the number of recipients for the awards so that we can continue to give more opportunities to our Latinx scholars.”
The fund has its roots in 1988 when a small group of local residents saw a need for scholarships specifically aimed at the Latino community. The initial group’s desire to help Latino students succeed beyond high school has grown and flourished over the last several decades, especially with administrative help from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. Since 2014, the fund has granted 12 scholarships per year, an increase from the four or five yearly scholarships that were given previously.
The board, which Cruz calls the most crucial part of the fund, recently increased from about six to 25 people to assist in being more involved in the community and being able to do more tasks.
“The most important part of our organization is the involvement of our board, some of whom are past alumni, all coming from different backgrounds with the main goal of supporting and empowering our communities and students,” said Cruz.
The banquet will take place on June 8 at Log Cabin and tickets are available on the fund’s website: www.latinoscholarshipwesternmass.org/.
All proceeds from the banquet will go “toward the continued development of scholarship opportunities for our students,” according to Cruz.