By Julie Faryniarz
Ringing in the new year for the Greenwich Alliance for Education is always an exciting time as we complete our annual awards of AVID SUCCESS Scholarship funding. Our students always impress!
This spring 2022 semester, 37 scholarship checks totaling $50,200 were mailed to the student’s colleges and universities. This brings our 2021-2022 school year award total to 42 students receiving $110,000, with a total of $650K awarded since 2013. (See list of award winners below).
Our scholarship recipients attend a variety of Connecticut State Schools, as well as those further afield such as Emory, URI, Fordham, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of New Hampshire and more. They are majoring in business, neuroscience, psychology, nursing, communications, computer science, and education. Most are working jobs while attending school and hold leadership positions on campus. Many indicate plans to attend graduate school or medical/dentistry programs to reach personal and professional life goals.
We ask our scholarship applicants if AVID still influences their academics and the answer is a resounding “YES!”. Specific examples include many executive functioning skills continually reinforced in AVID, self-advocacy, and the ability to meet with professors, ask critical questions, and resolve situations from the financial aid office to the Dean. Planners and Cornell Notes are tools they continue to use to stay organized and study effectively for exams. Many keep in touch with their AVID teacher and the AVID “family” of friends they built over a unique four year relationship in high school. The relationships forged during that time continue to be comfortable and offer a safe space to share stories about college life.
When I take a moment to think about these AVID alumni, I smile. AVID WORKS! The Alliance funded the implementation of this college readiness program in 2008 to expand access and create a college going culture for Greenwich High School students often under-represented in this profile. Now, there are over 250 AVID graduates persisting through college, graduating and entering the workforce, and attending graduate school programs. Phenomenal!
Even as we celebrate all of these students’ successes, we learn other striking insights when reading the AVID SUCCESS Scholarship applications. Our questions surface the impact of COVID on them and their families. Students report that many of their parents lost their jobs or had work hours dramatically reduced, increasing the stress associated with paying household and college bills. Challenges with online learning, in crowded spaces, made it hard to concentrate and perform at their best and often triggered bouts of anxiety and other mental health situations. Work study jobs, which help with paying for college, reduced their hours and many students took on additional jobs to help their families. These Greenwich students and families were disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
AVID SUCCESS Scholarships help students pay for college and, more than ever, this money is needed and necessary. Even with our awards we still calculate annual gaps of $300,000. The gap is calculated as Total Costs (including Tuition/Room and Board) less Financial Aid (including Grants, Scholarships and Loans). AVID students and families have had to take on a considerable amount of college loan debt.
At our annual Trivia Challenge fundraiser – this year MARCH 4, 2022 – we are fortunate to have a generous donor who will match donations made up to $25,000 for the AVID SUCCESS Scholarship Fund. Participation in this match is available to event participants and the community on our website www.greenwichalliance.org. We are also grateful to the Heidenreich Foundation, the Ruth Brown Foundation, and other family foundations who help us with scholarship funding.
In early January I had dinner with Domna Dali, a graduate from the inaugural GHS AVID Class of 2013 and a recipient of Alliance scholarships. Now a college graduate, she is flourishing in her career in the tech field, and is an AVID SUCCESS Mentor. It is wonderful to see how supporting AVID students in middle school, high school, and during college is now bringing back these young adults to the Alliance and offering them the chance to share their experiences as they give back.
“As I approached the end of my senior year, I had several doubts about where I would end up after high school. Many of these doubts were fueled by financial uncertainty. I had worked all throughout high school, saved money, and gotten good grades to qualify for scholarships, but coming from a single mother household put me at a disadvantage that even hard work and dedication could not overcome. I was prepared to make any sacrifice necessary to attend the school that would set me up best for future success, even if that meant private loans to be paid off in the following decades. Thankfully, due to the generosity of the Greenwich Alliance of Education, I have the ability to reallocate funds from working to pay for living expenses rather than for school. Because of this, I am able to work less hours during the school term, which enables me to thrive in my classes and have extra study time.”
Emma Schuren, AVID Class of 2019 attends Nova-Southeastern University ‘23 – Nursing major
Greenwich Alliance AVID SUCCESS Scholarship Award Winners Fall 2021 and Spring 2022
Erica Adjei, Mikayla Antonetti, Gianella Anyosa, Eternity Armenteros, Fanny Beccaglia, Lumi Bici, Mozi Bici, Vera Bici, Nicholas Blanco, Edward Businaro, Matheus Chaves, Alison Colin, Leslie Colin, Bleona Dedushi, Bria Dixon, Aryana Fernandes, Tiffany Ferreira, Fjolla Gashi, Gloria Maria Guardado, Alexandra Jimenez, Erjona Kabashi, Kasey Kralik, Hachton Laforest, Jamyva Lagout, Sofia Lancheros, Jorge Maldonado, Michelle Morocho, Jose Orellana, Nicolas Orellana, Alyson Payan, Lucas Perez, Katherine Grace Rau, Miguel Reyes, Michael Rincon, Glen Rivas, Emma Schuren, Blerta Shala, Loreta Shala, Valeria Tamayo, Lorena Vasquez, April Villanueva, Daniella Volochii.
Julie Faryniarz is the Executive Director of Greenwich Alliance for Education
