Working Group

Mentorship & Scholarship

It is the VISION of the E4E Mentorship and Scholarship Program to ensure ALL students within our community will have the opportunity and resources to identify and achieve their goals post-high school.

It is the MISSION of the E4E Mentorship and Scholarship Program to alleviate historic inequalities in education by providing scholarships and mentorship to graduating high school students seeking to continue their education.

Leaving high school into the world is perhaps one of our biggest milestones in life. All children can benefit from having a trusted adult to rely on during this transitional period in their lives. This is your chance to make a direct impact on a young adult’s future via mentorship or donating to future scholarships. If you would like to donate directly to the scholarship program you can do so here. If you would like to be considered as a future mentor for the graduating class of 2022, please fill out this form to be added to our database of potential mentors.

Encinitas4Equality Awards 9 Graduating High School Students $24,000 in Scholarships

Encinitas4Equality is honored to announce that this month 9 San Diego high school class of ’21 students have been awarded a collective total of $24,000 in scholarships and are all in the process of being paired with a mentor. Congratulations to SDUHSD graduates Angel Nava, Smyrna Flores, Allan Hernandez, Isobel Ramos, Jenna Vasquez and Emma Olsen and the San Diego Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical High School graduates Tessa Smith, Myren Bobryk-Ozaki and Sophia Romei.  Scholarship recipients will be attending an array of Colleges & Universities, including Mesa College, USD, USF, UC Merced, Cal State Fullerton, Beloit College and Rochester Institute of Technology.

Generous donations from Vuori, the Peters family and 100s of community members allowed Encinitas4Equality to increase the amount of scholarships awarded from 5 to 9 students. Students were selected based on their remarkable commitment to continuing their education, strong work ethic, financial need and commitment to a 1 year mentorship program through Encinitas4Equality. Unlike traditional scholarships which are set amounts and go directly to the cost of tuition and fees, Encinitas4Equality created an application process that allowed students to identify areas that they would most need funding to succeed.

The goal of the program is to eliminate historic inequities in the Education system. The cost of tuition is not the only issue keeping some students from continuing their education post high school. It is often the additional expenses such as books, transportation, computers that can become huge deterrents from continuing one’s education post high school. Students have access to grants and scholarships to offset the cost of tuition, but books, transportation, housing, and general living expenses can quickly become insurmountable. This class of scholarship recipients is a brilliant group made up of resiliency and tremendous work ethics. We have no doubt that they will make the world a brighter place.

We are also grateful to the advisors from the AVID program and SD MET for encouraging students to apply. We look forward to continuing the positive influence that mentors from these programs have made for these students up until their graduation by strategically pairing them with an Encinitas4Equality mentor. All scholarship recipients have been paired with a local mentor for a minimum of one year. Additionally, all scholarship recipients this year will be able to re-apply each year for a scholarship as we recognize that scholarships can become scarce as you get further along in college.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity and hope that when I become a mentor, I’ll be able to inspire someone the way this community has inspired me” says Smyrna Flores of SDA. “It gives me a boost of motivation. It lets me know that people are vested in me which is so cool” expresses Jenna Vasquez of Vista High.

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