Latino Student Union awards scholarships
This year the Latino Student Union celebrated Latino culture through food, song and dance and by helping a local high school student pay for college.
As part of the Fiesta Americas celebration Saturday, the Latino Student Union presented a $500 scholarship to Ruben Monterrosa, a senior at Mountain Crest High School.
Monterrosa said he appreciates the help.
“I’m just trying to find ways to have money,” Monterrosa said. “I went to Bridgerland (Applied Technology College) to be a pharmacy technician, basically just for school, because I need a job that’s pretty stable and (will) give me a good amount of income … this is going to help me out – give me a break.”
Monterrosa plans to become a pharmacist to follow his interest in chemistry, he said.
Monterrosa said he didn’t expect to win the award. A councilor at Mountain Crest handed him information about the scholarship the day before the essay was due and two days before he would be interviewed.
“I had no time to prepare for my interview and no time for my essay,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it at all. It surprised me.”
Cristina Medrano, LSU’s president, said she wanted the celebration to be something more than it was before.
“I wanted to give this event a purpose,” Medrano said. “I feel like the most help in our Latino community needed is with Latinos going to college.”
Medrano, a junior studying psychology, said she is a Latina student who needed help paying for college, and she wanted Fiestas Americas to help others attend college, as well.
“It’s only a $500 scholarship, and it’s only one scholarship, but it makes a difference,” Medrano said. “I hope this continues in the following years, and hopefully we can get more funding and we can give out more scholarships to more motivated students like Reuben.”
Monterrosa was the most qualified of the students who applied for the scholarship, Medrano said.
“He has a great GPA, his involvement in our community is amazing,” she said. “He is a first-generation student.”
Formerly, the event was called “Salsabration,” but LSU changed the name to help students throughout the community feel included, Medrano said.
“This year we decided to change the name to ‘Fiesta Americas,'” she said. “It has more meaning for us because we’re celebrating all Latin America.”
The event featured eight dances and vocal performances, ranging from hip-hop to the traditional dances of several Latin American countries. LSU members participated in most of the performances; however, three performances were presentations given by Mountain Crest High School and South Cache Junior High students.
As part of LSU’s community service efforts, members visited local schools to teach students the dances that would be performed in the event.
“The main thing was to get high schoolers motivated to go to college,” Medrano said. “I wanted to make them part of our event as much as possible.”
LSU members Mario Matos and Grecia Jimenez emceed the event and spoke about the importance of a college education in the Latino community.
“Thirty-seven percent of Latino students in the United States are dropouts in high school,” Matos said. “Only 23 percent get high school diplomas, and only 36 percent of (high school graduates) get some college.”
Medrano said she was pleased with how the event came together.
“I think it went great,” she said. “We had some miscommunications – I think it happens at every event – but for the most part, everyone seemed to have fun and the performers seemed great.”
– steve.kent@aggiemail.usu.edu