This Month Community in Action Scholarship and Fellowship Opportunities Leadership in Focus: A Mentor for Life Alumni Spotlight: Martha Chavez-McGivney Education Issues in the News Contact Information

Welcome to the first edition of the HSF Scholar Chapter E-Newsletter. Each month you will receive a new edition with information on scholarship and fellowship opportunities, highlights of Scholar Chapter events, articles by HSF Scholars, and recent news headlines. HSF Scholar Chapters are campus organizations that engage students in academic, leadership, and professional opportunities. They are open to all students.

Community in Action

Chapters Reach Out to Local Communities
Chapter members attended HSF Town Hall Meetings at community colleges, high schools, and community centers, including Belmont HS in Los Angeles, Miami Southridge HS, and Miami Senior High. The Town Hall Meetings, which are bilingual, multi-media sessions where students and families gain inspiration and information about the value and affordability of a college education, connected Chapter members with younger Latinos considering post- secondary study.

Chapter Activities
HSF Scholar Chapter members participated in programs this month ranging from internship workshops to graduate school panels to lectures by local professionals. At the University of Florida, successful businessman Victor Gonzalez spoke to students about strategies for professional and personal success. At a reception after the presentation, Gonzalez remained to mingle and speak with students. Students at UCLA participated in a GRE workshop by the Princeton Review. The first in a series of events, the UCLA Chapter is sponsoring a November workshop on applying to graduate school. To see photos of these and other events at our twenty campuses, visit the HSF Scholar Chapter Photo Album.

HSF Scholar Chapter Photo Album

	Scholarship and Fellowship Opportunities
The Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program The program seeks to recruit talented students in academic programs relevant to international affairs, political and economic analysis, administration, management, and science policy. (Deadline: February 2004) Amount: The fellowship award includes tuition, room, board, and mandatory fees during the junior and senior years of college and during the first year of graduate study with reimbursement for books and one round-trip travel. Eligibility: Available to US citizens in their sophomore year of undergraduate study, applicants must have a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher. American Association of University Women (AAUW) Fellowships and Grants As one of the largest sources of funding in the world exclusively for graduate women, the AAUW supports aspiring scholars, professionals, and activists. Some fellowships include: Career Development Grants support women who hold a bachelor's degree and who are preparing to advance their careers, change careers, or re-enter the work force. (Deadline: December 15, 2003) Eleanor Roosevelt Teacher Fellowships provide professional development opportunities for women public school teachers; improve girls' learning opportunities, and promote equity and long-term change in classrooms, schools, and school systems. (Deadline: January 10, 2004) International Fellowships are awarded for full- time graduate or postgraduate study or research to women who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. (Deadline: December 15, 2003) Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Fellowship The PPIA Fellowship is designed to prepare students, primarily from historically underrepresented groups, for graduate studies in public policy and/or international affairs and professional roles in public service. (Deadline: March 1, 2004) Eligibility: US citizen or permanent resident; must have completed junior year by start of Junior Summer Institute and have at least one semester/two quarters of coursework remaining. Amount: Full tuition for PPIA Junior Summer Institute, plus $1,000 stipend; Minimum $5,000 toward graduate school tuition. PPIA Fellows often receive financial offers above and beyond this minimum. Goldman Sachs Scholarship for Excellence The Scholarship for Excellence is awarded to recognize outstanding students from historically underrepresented groups and the achievements that they have made during their undergraduate academic careers. In addition to receiving a a scholarship, winners have the opportunity to work for Goldman Sachs as a summer analyst. Note: This scholarship is available only at selected universities. Check with your scholarship office for applications and availability. (Deadline: December 12, 2003) Amount: $5,000 and summer internship Eligibility: Enrolled as Sophomore or Junior at time of application: Black, Hispanic or Native American heritage; Cumulative GPA of at least 3.4. Find out about HSF Scholarships and other scholarships at the HSF web site. Research hundreds of excellent scholarship, fellowship, and internship opportunities at the Nationally Coveted Scholarships/Fellowships Awards web site. Considering an MBA? Contact the Latino Student Organization at the Harvard Business School. At Harvard Business School, the Latino Student Organization (LASO) seeks to support the interests of students and prospects of Latino or Hispanic American descent. If you are considering an MBA, LASO members are available to answer your questions and assist in the application process. Please visit the LASO website for more information or contact them at: laso@hbs.edu

	Leadership in Focus: A Mentor for Life
I met David Helfand playing soccer. Or, to be exact: warming up for an intramural game I will play with the astronomy department's team, I pepper an older gentleman in kneepads--apparently our goalie-- with shots. No one introduces us, so I assume he is the eccentric every department seems to house. Dignified, with a flowing, voluminous beard, frizzy hair pulled back in a ponytail... and those kneepads. Isn't he the successful businessman who retired to pursue a PhD, and who is donating some of his money (millions of dollars, say the bochincheros!) to help us build an observatory in Arizona? No, he isn't. Someone, at some later time, clears this up: our goalie isn't a grad student, he's a professor... and soon he is supervising my senior thesis. I am working with someone in far away Puerto Rico and need a local to serve as my university advisor. As a result, the unknown goalie becomes familiar--slowly. I am afraid to appear foolish in our conversations, intimidated by this man so obviously at ease in both his field and in life. But we talk a little bit, and then a bit more, and Professor Helfand helps me finish my thesis and win a fellowship to study in Cambridge, England. At the time that seems more than enough. But it turns out to be just the start of a relationship from which I have benefited for almost ten years now. A few years later the goalie and I sit on a bench outside the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. Professor Helfand, whom I now call David, is in the midst of a year-long sabbatical at the IOA, and I am working across the street, in the university's Astrophysics Group. I am there because David suggested I talk to someone who turned out to have a research project for me. That work has earned me a Master's degree and then a job, and I am now considering a PhD. David mentions the University of Washington in Seattle, a place I've never thought of attending. I apply; David writes one of my recommendations. Now I attend. I can't imagine life without David Helfand. He has made a career in astronomy possible for me, guiding me whenever I face an important decision. David has been much more than a simple advice-giver, however. He is a friend and a role model, someone whose ability to balance scientific research and life inspires me. In December I will return to New York City, my hometown. I arrive on the 18th and on the 19th will visit David. When I knock, he will be peering at his computer screen through glasses balanced somehow at the end of his nose. He will stop typing, offer me a seat, settle into his couch, and, stroking the beard, quiz me on my dissertation and life in Seattle. We will talk about his classes and the university administration. The Red Sox may or may not come up. The atrocious Knicks certainly will. We will make dinner plans, although seats at his table can be hard to come by: the goalie is a gourmet chef. We will discuss research we have been working on together. The absolutely amazing thing is that I had no idea that, as an undergraduate, I could meet a professor who a decade later still influences my life so directly. Here--I admit it: I want to grow up to be David Helfand, minus the kneepads. Marcel Agueros is a 4th year graduate student in the Department of Astronomy of the University of Washington. In his PhD research he focuses on identifying and characterizing objects in our Galaxy which emit x-rays. He is also the Student Coordinator for the UW Scholar Chapter. He has never discussed the soccer incident with David Helfand. University of Washington Scholar Chapter »

	Alumni Spotlight: Martha Chavez-McGivney
Since 1975, The Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) has awarded scholarships to approximately 30,000 students. Many HSF scholars come from situations of dire need yet go on to become leaders in their communities and their professions. Martha Chávez McGivney was recently named to the HSF Alumni Hall of Fame for breaking of the cycle of under- education and becoming one of the first in her family to get a college degree. McGivney, who came from Guanajuato, Mexico with her parents, received a bachelor's degree in economics from the UC Berkeley and a master's degree in public policy from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). She served as a Presidential Management Intern for the U.S. Dept. of Education working on national education policy issues. Currently at CMU, she is helping to increase educational opportunities for Hispanics and serves on the CMU President's Diversity Advisory Council to provide strategic direction on diversity issues. HSF Alumni Hall of Fame »

	Education Issues in the News
Latino Studies and Black Studies: Bonds and Divergent Paths (Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/8/03) "The US Census Bureau recently confirmed it: Hispanics have become the largest minority group in the United States...What does that have to do with the college classroom or scholarly oeuvre? To answer that, one needs to examine the historical roots and intellectual scope of Latino studies and black studies, the bonds that unite them, the divergent paths that separate them. Only then can one begin to assess whether the Hispanic demographic explosion is a sign, as innuendos suggest, that the age of African-American studies as the acknowledged leader of ethnicity on campus is coming to an end..." Reports Spotlight Latino Dropout Rates, College Attendance (Education Week, 6/18/03) "A report by the Pew Hispanic Center provides new insight into the troubling statistic often cited by the federal government that one of every three Latino youths in the United States is a high school dropout. But, by analyzing the trends among subgroups of Latinos who make up that stunning dropout rate, the study shows that not all news about Hispanic dropouts is bad....The Pew report looks at one of the important distinctions between various groups of Latino dropouts: whether they ever attended U.S. schools..." Racial Gaps Found to Persist In Public's Opinion of Schools (Education Week, 5/21/03) "Nearly a half-century after a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck down racially segregated schools, African-American and Hispanic students still have less academic opportunity and success than do their white peers, a study contends. Those findings by the Education Trust, a Washington-based research group, were echoed in a survey by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in which black and Hispanic adults assigned their local public schools lower ratings than did whites..."

	Contact Information
Student Coordinators California State University, Fresno a_beltran1@hotmail.com California State University, Fullerton valdez_veronica2002@yahoo.com Columbia University vvv4@columbia.edu Harvard University tbosquez@law.harvard.edu New York University dl440@nyu.edu Stanford University torres04@stanford.edu Texas A&M University nunbee@yahoo.com University of Arizona melo@u.arizona.edu University of California, Berkeley rleal@uclink.berkeley.edu University of California, Los Angeles afeijoo@ucla.edu University of California, San Diego myfuentes@ucsd.edu University of Chicago yborrego@uchicago.edu University of Florida zonia55@aol.com University of Miami Riddle555@aol.com University of New Mexico nybaker7@aol.com University of Southern California cesargon@usc.edu University of Texas, Austin roxanamc2001@yahoo.com University of Washington agueros@astro.washington.edu Yale University ryan.murguia@yale.edu The Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) is committed to helping students achieve their full potential and contribute meaningfully to all the communities they touch. HSF Scholar Chapters promote academic success and professional preparation among Latinos by engaging students in academic, leadership, and professional opportunities. Scholar Chapters are open to all students on campus and are geared toward the needs of Latino students. »

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