Underprivileged students who meet a low socioeconomic need and poor educational background may be given a helping hand to reach higher education through a scholarship.

The Co-founders Angelo and Sofia Tsakopoulos Scholarship awards 25 students $1,000 in their freshman academic year or students transferring from community colleges.

The goal of the scholarship is to reach out to unprivileged students who attended high schools that average poorly statewide in order to give them the opportunity to enroll at Sacramento State.

Scholarship and internship coordinator Marie A. Torregrosa said she begins the recruiting phase by reaching out to high school counselors. Torregrosa said the scholarship criteria requires that eligible students fall under a low-income socioeconomic background, the first generation to attend college and a farm-working background.

Students awarded with the scholarship must also submit 40 hours of community service for an opportunity to not only receive monetary aid, but to give back to their community.

Associated Students Inc. Executive Vice President Miguel Cervantes was awarded with the scholarship during his freshman year at Sacramento State. Grateful for his experience, he said he was able to pay for his books, food, rent and college expenditures. Cervantes said he did not have to work and was able to fully focus on school and participate in campus events.

Cervantes worked with the Woodland Holy Rosary Church to give back to his community.

“We provided voter education and voter registration services to minorities in the community,” Cervantes said.

Other services included translating documents from English to Spanish, providing information on social services available for abused children and women and educating elementary schools of higher education.

State-funded scholarships are dispersed throughout the California State University system. The CSU Scholarship Program for Future Scholars’ goal is to increase disadvantaged students’ participation in college.

Established in 1996, the scholarship program funds full-time students enrolled in a CSU campus. The scholarship is provided on a “need base.” The need is established through financial aid after students have filed for aid.

According to the Call Me Mister Program (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models), South Carolina is considered to be one of the poorest states accompanied with low standardized test scores statewide in the elementary school and high school levels.

The program recruits black males as teachers in the state’s public elementary schools. The program was created as a result of a collaboration between Benedict College, Claflin University and Morris College.

Roy Jones, director for the program, said the program’s main goal is to prepare black males to work in low-performing elementary schools that lack the support and resources needed to prepare students.

“It is important for our students to develop proper disposition in order to teach,” Jones said.

Jones said through counseling and proper class placement the students enrolled in the program learn the philosophical framework and leadership skills necessary to enter an institution that help better the educational system.

“Students are mentored in developing meaningful relationships with kids and their peers, as well as effectively develop their self identity,” Jones said.

The program currently works with schools in Virginia and Pennsylvania. For the next two years, it is looking to collaborate with Florida and Georgia.

“We are not currently working with the state of California, but we are looking to expand our borders,” Jones said.The deadline for the CSU Scholarship Program for Future Scholars is May 23.

For more information, contact the Multi-Cultural Center at (916) 278-6101.

Vanessa Guerrero can be reached at [email protected].