Dear all,
As we all continue to adapt our lives to this COVAD-19 crisis we need to remember that every time our country faces a significant crisis, our Latino community is the hardest hit. Whether it’s the affordable housing shortage, health care costs, low wages, and benefits, etc. our community has to find new ways to sustain our families. That is so true about our current critical situation.
Here at the Hispanic Foundation, we are as committed as ever to serve our students, parents, and community. Like most of you, we are making a major pivot to online services as most of our education programs took place in public school facilities. With school closures, we are excited to announce that in the last two weeks, we have launched the following online sessions:
• SAT Test prep course for high school students.
• Parent Engagement Academies in San Mateo and East Palo Alto/East Menlo Park.
• College Readiness Workshop for high school Juniors and Seniors titled: “Comparing Admission Offers & Getting that Cash!”
• Career Coaching for the Latinos in Technology Scholarship recipients.
We also continue serving over 300 Latinos in Technology Scholarship students who are studying remotely. We do not know yet if the crisis will hinder their ability to graduate on time or find summer internships. But we are supporting them as much as we can via online mentoring (i.e. Empowered Students) and through career coaching opportunities. The deadline to apply for our next scholarship is April 3rd. We will soon be evaluating close to 100 applicants and will announce this year’s scholars very soon. If you have summer internship opportunities at your company, please let us know.
The silver lining is that for the first time in its 9 year history, the Latino Board Leadership Academy – Class XV is being conducted via webinar. We are taking this opportunity to try this model and hopefully reach more Latino professionals who would like to join nonprofit boards.
Thank you for your support. We hope you and your families are healthy and adapting well to this new way of living and working.
Kind regards,
Ron Gonzales
President & Chief Executive Officer
Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley