Scholarship fund awards women
June 11, 2006 - Posted in ScholarshipI GREW UP in a place known for its crime and violence, and where the homicide rate is higher than the college attendance rate, announced Yien Kwan Saechao as she was being honored at a recent tea hosted by Karlynn van Digglen in Blackhawk.
It was at that point when Carol Lee Bishop, president of the Blackhawk Womens Scholarship Fund, briskly crossed the room to speak. She wanted to add that its tough enough to succeed under the best of circumstances, but when students like Yien succeed, its against all odds.
Rather than hiding and listening to guns being fired — by children, no less — Yien emerged with a fierceness of her own, Lee said. Today she is a graduate of Richmond High School, where she carried a 3.57 grade-point average, and she is enrolled at Sacramento State University, where she plans to major in child development and return to open a day-care center.
Lee also wanted to talk about the mission of the Blackhawk Womens Scholarship Fund. Born with seed money from Blackhawk Women three short years ago, the group began efforts to alleviate the financial limitations of young women in Contra Costa County pursuing a college education.
The first year the fledgling fund awarded $9,000 in scholarships. Now the total amount is $35,000. The funds are divided among six students each year from a growing number of applicants, who are evaluated for their community involvement, financial need and academic performance. While they have to be solid citizens and achievers, they dont have to be straight-A students.
Besides Lee and Karlynn, members of Blackhawk Womens Scholarship Fund include Sharon Barr-Day, Lynn Brady, Sandy Cosgrove, Peggy Gill, Ursula Huber-Rea, Lucia Lawrence, Lynn Lobas and Julie Moore.
Together they look for attributes like those shown by Anna Romanowska. Since arriving from Poland to live with an aunt, she has mastered English, attended Contra Costa Community College where she was a star on the championship debate team, and is now enrolled at UC Berkeley with a goal of becoming an international ambassador to the United Nations to help third-world countries.
Or those of Angelica Galang. She not only graduated third out of 284 students from Mt. Diablo High School, but she was the associate student body president, the Filipino American Club president and the Varsity Flag Squad captain. She also visited a senior citizen each week, worked two jobs, and plans to attend UCLA this fall.
Another recipient, Leslie Lara, emigrated from Mexico, mastered English and achieved a 3.8 grade-point average at Contra Costa College to break the cycle in her family of migrant fruit and vegetable picking. She will attend UC Berkeley this fall to pursue a career in cardiology.
Still another, Carmen Liliana Escobar, came from El Salvador, attended Contra Costa Community College and is now on her way to Santa Cruz to get her degree in womens studies.
The final award winner, Janice Parr, is a 40-something award-winning journalist from Contra Costa Community College who plans to attend San Francisco State University.
After a bunch of serious personal and economic setbacks, Parr said, I realized that the world was turning and it was time for me to hop on.
It was this kind of spunk and can-do spirit, Lee said, that blew us away.
Janice spent all her money to come see us, she continued. She was wearing high heels and we wondered how on earth she was planning on getting home. She didnt care. Her attitude was her feet were meant for walking and thats what she will do. One of these days her feet are going to walk all over San Francisco U.
Source: www.insidebayarea.com