*March 18, closing date of the call for applications.
The Latinos in Technology Scholarship seeks out young people in Silicon Valley to provide them with the support they need to graduate from college and to further their love and passion for science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM).
The program, which closes March 18, was established by the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley (HFSV) and administered by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF), with the goals of addressing the educational gap among Latino students and increasing diversity in high-tech employment.
The lucky 100 students who win the Latinos in Technology Scholarship (LITS), and who major in a STEM-related field, will receive up to $30,000 over three years.
They will also have internship opportunities at Silicon Valley companies, corporate sponsors of the scholarship.
Although Latinos represent nearly 30 percent of the population in Silicon Valley, only 4 percent work in STEM and high tech, said Melissa Canela, HFSV's Education Program Manager.
"The Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley is actively working to increase that statistic. The Latinos in Tech Scholarship was created to address this problem by financially and professionally supporting Latino STEM students and helping to open opportunities for them in their career fields," he added.
Scholarship applicants must have graduated from high school or be attending college in one of the eleven Northern California counties.
In addition, they must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and demonstrated financial need, as well as be U.S. citizens, legal residents or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
Emiko Thompson, senior grants associate at SVCF, explained that Latinos make up about a quarter of the population in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, but experience increasing disparities in income, education, health and housing compared to their white and Asian peers.
"SVCF's long-standing partnership with the Hispanic Foundation aligns with our foundation's mission to close the inequity gap in Silicon Valley," he added.
Latinos in Technology Changing Lives Grant
While Camila Ramos Garzón was studying computer science at California State University, East Bay, she pursued her interest in teaching people about technology.
That passion eventually led her to her current job as a developer advocate at PlanetScale, which offers a database-as-a-service platform.
During college, she took a paid job at a non-profit organization, teaching children about technology. SVCF scholarships, which covered the full cost of her tuition, allowed her to develop her interest in teaching.
"The scholarships allowed me to focus on growing my career and working on things I enjoyed, not just what I needed to do to make money," said Ramos Garzón.
The scholarships covered everything except room and board, which he was able to save by living at home.
For Ramos Garzón, the support he received from the Latinos in Technology Scholarship and a previous SVCF scholarship, the Samsung@First Scholarship, was key to developing his career while pursuing his degree.
By the time he graduated from Cal State East Bay in December 2021 with a degree in computer science, he had already been working in the technology industry for more than a year.
Her path to her current technology job began with a teaching position, thanks to her scholarships.
In 2018, he founded a nonprofit organization ?STEMTank? to teach technology to children ages 8-18, with a mission to increase the number of students of color learning about technology. To date, he has served over 250 students in the East Bay and online.
Ramos Garzón was recently accepted into the Schwarzman Scholars program, a master's program in global affairs that involves spending a year in China.
Success stories like that of Camila Ramos Garzón are among the beneficiaries of SVCF scholarships.
The deadline to apply for the Latinos in Technology Scholarship for the 2022-2023 academic year is March 18, 2022.
If you are interested in applying for the Latinos in Technology Fellowship, please visit the SVCF website at click here to view the application requirements.
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