WVC Partners with Hispanic Empowerment Fund to Provide Scholarships

Wenatchee Valley College (WVC) has partnered with the North Central Washington Hispanic Empowerment Fund to provide scholarship opportunities for Latino students who want to attend WVC.

WVC Foundation executive director, Rachel Evey, says the new partnership will expand on an existing one between the two entities.

"We've had a relationship with them for a number of years and we're really excited to continue awarding these scholarships, specifically to WVC students who are in some of our student support programs."

The college has made an initial investment of $8,000 in scholarship funding to the NCW Hispanic Empowerment Fund.

Evey says the awards can be used to assist students in a variety of ways.

"Scholarship funds can be used for any expense related to attending Wenatchee Valley College. Some may need it for transportation costs, others for tuition, and others still for child care. We just want to make sure that any barriers these students would have to attending WVC would be taken care of with these scholarships."

The NCW Hispanic Empowerment Fund scholarships are specifically designed to provide assistance for students enrolled in WVC support service programs, including Area Health Education Center, College Assistance Migrant Program, Math Engineering Science Achievement program and TRIO Student Support Services. Each of these programs works to improve the diversity and achievement of historically underrepresented populations.

Between 2017-2019, the fund awarded 43 individual students a total of $33,000.

Major donors to the fund included Columbia Valley Community Health (CVCH), Moss Adams, Dr. Jim Richardson, Numerica Credit Union, Weinstein Beverage, and the NCW Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.