31 May Announcing: 2015 OCIYU Scholarship Recipients

By: OCIYU Scholarship Review Committee

Orange County Immigrant Youth United (OCIYU) is happy to announce the recipients of its 2015 scholarship awards program. Every year OCIYU fundraises to provide scholarships to undocumented students.

My name is Lisandra Garcia. I was born in Michoacan, Mexico and moved to the United States at the age of seven. I live with my parents and my two younger sisters. I am a volunteer at a local church. There I spend several hours helping out in the worship team, helping in kids events, or cleaning. I recently graduated from the number one school in Kansas with honors. I am a recipient of the KCKCC honors scholarship. There I will begin my studies in graphic design, which for I also received the Andrew Douglas Kemme Memorial Art scholarship.

Scholarship awards range from $250 for graduating high school or GED students attending college in the fall, to $500 for continuing college and graduate school students. This year’s recipients are as follows:

High School Recipients: Peter Liu (CA), Jose Urias(CA), Yadira Hernandez (TX), Nataly Tapia (CA), Julio Mendez (CA), Pablo Jimenez (CA), Nitzarindani Vite (TX), Maria Vazquez (CA), Edgar Salas (TX), Lisandra Garcia (KS), Maria Cuevas (CA), Grisell Canas (CA).

College Recipients: Kliah Soto (CA), Amalia Rojas (NY), Luis Ramirez (CA), Rosa Aramburo (IL), Maria Mares (NY), Miriam Delgado (CA), Scarlett Escareño (CA), Lorena Medel (CA), Armando Murillo (CA), Oliva Prezas-Garces (NC), Janeth Lopez (CA), Manuel Cruz (CA), Sharmin Haque (CA), Alexis Buz (CA).

“As an undocumented student, I can’t help but feel scared as I approach my new college life. Thanks to the hard work of the Orange County Immigrant Youth United team, I can continue in my education knowing that community organizations and allies are fighting for the rights of undocumented students and providing much needed scholarships for our education. It is an honor to be a recipient of their scholarship and to be able apply it to my studies at the University of California, Berkeley where I will be studying Social Welfare.” -Pablo Jimenez, High School Scholarship recipient from Santa Ana.

OCIYU has provided scholarships since 2010 in an effort to provide a level of financial support to undocumented students who make up the organization’s base of support and membership. Acknowledging the disparity in financial assistance for undocumented students among the 50 states, OCIYU has maintained the program open to students across the nation. The high volume of applications students submit coupled with limited funds has made the program highly competitive.

“Being part of the scholarship committee was a rewarding experience. Knowing that we were making a difference in students lives was enough motivation to work together.” – Lizbeth Reynoso, Scholarship Review Committee.

We would like to thank all of our community members who helped make these scholarship awards by making donations large and small. We would also like to thank the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) for matching our funds in order to double the number of awards. With everyone’s support we have made 2015 the year with the largest number of scholarship awards in OCIYU’s history!

To donate to the 2016 Scholarship please Click Here