Bien Hecho: Carlos Guerra’s Scholarship For 1st-Generation College Students
Some people are so larger-than-life that when it’s time to talk about them, you feel speechless. That’s how I feel now writing this post about our late colleague, Carlos Guerra. There were a great many things Carlos accomplished over the years, but in the time I knew him, nothing consumed him so much as trying to figure out a way to help Latino youth prepare to step into their place as the future leaders of this country.
In other words, Carlos thought helping young Latinos get a college education was a huge deal. Before his death most of his energy (not spent on News Taco or fishing) was going towards a scholarship fund named for him at his alma mater, Texas A&M – Kingsville. That scholarship fund helps first-time college students achieve their dream of a degree and on April 30 a group of his friends in conjunction with the university will be hosting a fishing tournament fundraiser for the scholarship. For more about the scholarship visit here, for more about the tournament, here.
This is what Carlos had to say about education, in his own words last year:
A dime today doesn’t buy as much as it did when I was a kid and hamburgers were a quarter, or five for a dollar. But if we each kick in a dime or two or a couple of quarters each day into a jar, and contribute $5, $10 or $20 bill each month to a fund, we can help change South Texas. After all, there are millions of us now in South Texas and the border region.
And honestly, in a world where a T-shirt starts out at $10, and a breakfast taco sells for a dollar and more, who can’t afford to put aside that much? Please help do your part. For our kids, our grand children and our great grand children. We can afford it if we just save a little at a time, every day, every week, every month.
What he was trying to say, is that instead of being overwhelmed by the number of needy students or the sheer amount of money it would take to educate them individually, pull a Barack Obama and ask for what people can give. That’s what the fishing tournament aims to do. If you don’t think you can make the April 30 tournament in Port Aransas, Texas, then visit the scholarship page here to donate what you can for the first-generation students, whose name we will announce on News Taco later on.
Our weekly segment, “Bien Hecho,” highlights the good deeds and achievements of Latinos across the U.S. If you feel that someone you know is deserving of recognition, let us know at tips@newstaco.com
Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD
