Help us fund GCSA Scholarships in 2012

It’s been two years since we began this initiative to provide scholarships to undergraduate students at Georgetown University who are making significant contributions to their communities. In these last two years, the Georgetown Comunidad Scholarship Association has awarded 16 scholarships to exceptional young women and men. From its beginning, the GCSA has been an effort made possible by the donations of many friends of the GCSA. I’ve been humbled by how friends of the GCSA continue volunteer and fund these scholarships. Some of our friends have given a lot and we are incredibly grateful. Many alumni have given a little. The important thing is that we all give.

Just last month, we awarded our last four scholarships for the year 2011. Like previous recipients, Noel, Kalia, Johanny and Sakeenah are incredible young people deserving of this scholarship. As 2011 closes, it’s time to ask for your help to raise the scholarship dollars of the coming year. So today, I’m inviting all of the friends of the GCSA to consider making a small donation to the GCSA to fund scholarships for the coming year.

First, your donation to the GCSA Scholarship Program will go to assist undergraduate students who are leaders in their community and who are in need of a extra financial assistance to make their Georgetown University education possible. Speaking for myself, I remember how challenging it was to navigate my studies, activities, and side jobs to make ends meet at Georgetown. And while I had external scholarships that made this load easier, often these scholarships would only be made available once a year. The GCSA accepts applications for four scholarships every semester. That’s eight $500 scholarships that are awarded a year. And while the amount of the individual scholarship may not sound like much, it certainly means a lot to an undergraduate student struggling to make ends meet. If you haven’t done so yet, read about these extraordinary scholarship recipients here. Second, you should donate to the GCSA because your donation will keep this initiative alive. Without the support of friends, the GCSA could not exist. Each year, the GCSA is awarding eight scholarships to eight deserving young people. Each semester, dozens of students apply for the scholarship and it takes many people to volunteer to disseminate, receive, sort and review scholarship applications. This is no small feat and we are incredibly proud of the many people who have given their time and treasure to grow the GCSA. Having no paid staff means that dollars donated to the GCSA will go to benefit students. Finally, consider donating to the GCSA because of the students that benefit from your donation. Take a moment to look at the photos and short biographies of the student recipients. Each recipient is a student who is incredibly dedicated to his or her community at Georgetown and at home. And each student is deserving of our help. Let’s continue making these scholarships available for the coming year. I encourage you to join me in making a small donation to ensure that the GCSA continues making scholarship dollars available in the coming year.

Making your donation is easy. The preferred method is by check made payable to the Georgetown Comunidad Scholarship Association and sent to our address below. Or you can click here to make your donation with a debit or credit card through PayPal. Our goal is to raise a year’s worth of scholarship dollars before the end of 2011. I hope that you consider making your donation to the GCSA today.

Georgetown Comunidad Scholarship Association

P.O. Box 3531

Redwood City, CA 94063

On behalf of everyone at the GCSA, thanks for reading and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Octavio González

Chair, Board of Directors

gonzalez.octavio@gmail.com

Announcing GCSA’s Fall 2011 Scholarship Recipients

We’re proud to announce our scholarship recipients for the fall 2011 semester, all of whom impressed us with their dedication to community. A big Hoya congrats to:

Sakeenah Shabazz (COL ’15)

Johanny Lopez (SNHS ’15)

Noel Mendoza (SFS ’12)

Kalia Vang (COL ’13)

Biographies of the recipients are below. Again, muchas gracias to the members of our Selection Committee for taking on the tough task of thoroughly reviewing all scholarship applications and selecting our recipients from a group of accomplished Hoyas.

Sakeenah Shabazz (COL ’15)

Sakeenah was born and raised in San Diego, California. She is the seventh child out of eight children and the first to attend a four-year university. Sakeenah chose to attend Georgetown University because it was far from home and would provide her with an experience that she could not get at any other institution. One of Sakeenah’s goals in life is to travel to every continent (except Antarctica)! After graduating from Georgetown, with a degree in human science, Sakeenah plans to attend medical school to become a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology.

Johanny Lopez (NHS ’15)

Johanny comes to Georgetown University by way of the Dominican Republic where she was born and raised. In 2005, Johanny moved to the United States with her family. Johanny has come a long way as an immigrant to this country. As an English Language Learner, Johanny excelled academically and was her high school valedictorian. Johanny’s determination comes from her desire to help underprivileged communities. As a high school student, Johanny mentored struggling middle school students, tutoring them and encouraging them to pursue their interests. Johanny currently studies international health at Georgetown University’s School of Nursing and Health Studies and hopes to pursue a career in medicine. Her goal is to work to end health inequalities in the Dominican Republic. International health, Johanny says, is the link between her passion for medicine and her desire to help underprivileged communities.

Noel Mendoza (SFS ’12)

Noel is a senior in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown and is pursuing a degree in culture and politics with an emphasis on U.S. Latino education, literature, and socioeconomic issues. Noel is originally from Los Angeles, California where he graduated from Verbum Dei High School. At Georgetown, Noel works for the Office of the President. He is also the founder and current coordinator of La Casita, Georgetown’s first recognized Latino-interest house. Noel also participates as a member of Ritmo y Sabor and has served as a tutor for DC Schools and Cristo Rey Tutoring, a student organization that tutors students from the Cristo Rey Network high school in Takoma Park, Maryland. In addition to all this, Noel is currently the President of Chi Chapter’s La Unidad Latina, Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc. While in Washington D.C., Noel has interned for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and has become involved with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. After graduation, Noel plans to work before pursuing a graduate degree in public policy.

Kalia Vang (COL ‘13)

Kalia is a Junior in the College, pursuing a government major and minors in sociology and women and gender Studies. She was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a first-generation Hmong-American and college student, Kalia seeks to empower underrepresented, vulnerable communities with her Georgetown education. Through political activism and community and campus involvement, Kalia demonstrates a passion for public service and coalition building. Her contributions to the immigrant community have been pivotal to her Georgetown experience; she educated the Georgetown community about the DREAM Act, tutored an immigrant child through the DC Schools Project, advocates for comprehensive immigration reform, and recently established a Georgetown mentoring branch for an Arlington-based non-profit, Educación Para Nuestro Futuro (Education for Our Future). She promotes diversity, inclusion, and social justice through her experience with Georgetown's Students of Color Alliance and the competitive Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Summer Internship Program. In addition, Kalia enjoys Bollywood dancing, exploring DC, and reading.

We are thankful for…

…our Selection Committee!

This semester the GCSA had another awesome Selection Committee at work reading scholarship applications and interviewing applicants. Our Selection Committee is charged with the difficult decision of selecting four scholarship recipients from numerous deserving applicants. These are committed alumni donors to the GCSA who volunteer their time to read applications, conduct interviews and come together to determine every semester’s scholarship recipients. As expected, the Selection Committee excelled at their task by thoroughly and thoughtfully reviewing every submission. Muchas gracias to the following Hoyas for sharing their precious time with us this semester (and next!):

• Berenice De La Parra ('98)
• Joe Saucedo ('00)
• Gloria Gasca ('03)
• Yadira Vieyra ('11)
• Indra Sen ('08)
• Nadia Marquez ('09)
• Arturo Preciado ('02)
• John Azpeitia ('99)

Cash for College!

If you feel strongly about serving your community and can use extra funds to offset the cost of being on the Hilltop, then apply for the Georgetown Comunidad Scholarship Association's scholarship by Sunday, OCTOBER 16. Allow Georgetown alumni to acknowledge your contributions beyond the classroom and become part of a growing base of Hoya scholars who continue to serve others. Email georgetown.comunidad@gmail.com for a copy of the application or for more information.

It’s been so long since last we met…time for Reunión y Despedida!

The GCSA is proud and excited to host the second annual Reunión y Despedida in Los Angeles on Saturday, August 20! Reunión y Despedida is an event geared towards bringing many of Georgetown's diverse comunidad members together. For alumni, this is an opportunity to reunite with old friends. For undergraduates, this is one last hoorah before the start of the fall semester. For incoming members of the Class of 2015, this is a chance for you and your family to meet other members of your class and for your parents/guardians to become acquainted with a diverse and dynamic Georgetown community. Those attending – incoming Hoyas, current undergraduates, alums, friends and family – are, were, and will be the support that makes an endeavor like Georgetown possible.

So what can you expect at Reunión y Despedida? Delicious food is one draw. This event is casual and will be in the backyard of Georgetown alumnus Alex Chacon's home in Los Angeles. Alumni are providing great, home-cooked food (vegetarian and otherwise) and we will have plenty of beverages on hand. And although we lure you in with delicious food, our objective is to connect and reconnect you to the Georgetown comunidad.

If you’re an incoming Hoya or current undergraduate, please RSVP to georgetown.comunidad@gmail.com with your name and the name(s) of your guest(s).

Alums: Your support makes this event possible. RSVP by make a small donation to the GCSA. We suggest $25.00, but any donation is welcome and no alumnus/a will be turned away for not donating. To make a donation, use the PayPal "Donate" button at the upper right hand corner of our blog homepage. Once you make the donation, email georgetown.comunidad@gmail.com to confirm your RSVP.

Finally: We hope any parents of students and alumni can attend! This is a family friendly event and parents are encouraged to attend and meet other Hoya parents from the neighborhood!

¡Felicidades Class of 2011!

It’s right around Commencement Weekend that I get nostalgic for Georgetown. Commencement weekend is a clash of feelings and a meeting of worlds: parents and siblings coming from out of town and, maybe for the first time, seeing the world you lived in for the last four years. And with family in town, you suddenly find your attention being split in multiple directions: Commencement Weekend events, celebrations with family who’ve traveled long distances to share in this joy with you, and an effort to squeeze last moments of quality time with friends whom you may not see for some time to come. It’s rough but beautiful at the same time. To the Class of 2011, on behalf of the Georgetown Comunidad Scholarship Association, we say felicidades and congratulations to you and your families! It’s been a long journey but you’ve made it. You are graduating and you are leaving Georgetown a much better place than when you found it. As you join us alumni in the world of Hoya Heaven (as Dr. Dan Porterfield likes to put it), know that there is a comunidad of incredible Hoyas ready and waiting for you. And one way to keep your connection back to Georgetown is through the Georgetown Comunidad Scholarship Association. Stay tuned for get-togethers, mentorship opportunities and opportunities to make your contribution to the GCSA.

I’d like to take a moment to highlight one of the GCSA Scholars who is graduating this year. Brenda Garcia('11) has made significant contributions to the Georgetown Community in her four years on the Hilltop. She is a bright and energetic leader who is giving back to the comunidad as a teacher through Teach For America. Brenda’s path at Georgetown was preceded by another inspiring Hoya, Sarah Audelo ('06), who taught Brenda when Sarah was a TFA teacher in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. A huge congratulations to the GU Class of 2011 and to our graduating GCSA Scholar, Brenda Garcia!

College costs are more than tuition, room and board...

Recently, fellow board member Vicente Garcia (COL ’05) passed along a Wall Street Journal article detailing the college student’s dilemma: the cost of attendance estimated by the financial aid office doesn’t meet certain and sometimes unexpected college expenses.

Reflecting on this, I realized that my experience at Georgetown was similar. Some of the following scenarios may sound familiar to you:

• Are you from Southern California, the land where a winter coat is a light Dickies jacket? Suddenly, that decision to go to school on the east coast means investing in a thicker (more expensive) coat. Time for a peacoat.
• When on campus, did you decide to take that awesome Latin American history class, but then realized that the required list of books numbered past a dozen? Suddenly, that intellectually stimulating class means being saddled with a large bill made payable to the university bookstore. Time to look for a part-time job.
• Did your family’s income decrease unexpectedly due to job loss or work hours reduction, but your expected family contribution on your award letter wasn't met with a proportional reduction? Now what?

As an alumna, I remember the struggle to make ends meet; this is precisely why the Georgetown Comunidad Scholarship Association is so important. We know there are more expenses to a college education than tuition, room and board.

If you’re an undergraduate student at Georgetown, I can say to you: you are not alone because we are here for you. “We” are a comunidad of alumni ready to pitch in because we know how hard you and your loved ones worked to get where you are. The GCSA’s scholarship cycle occurs twice during the academic year: fall and spring semesters. To be eligible, you must be a full time undergraduate student in any college at Georgetown University and not have been a past recipient of this scholarship. We award four $500 scholarships each semester.

If you’re an alumnus or alumna of Georgetown, I invite you to consider supporting the work of the GCSA or matching or exceeding your previous contribution to this worthy cause. With the support of friends like you, we can ensure that current and future Hoyas aren’t unnecessarily impeded with unexpected college costs.

Click on the PayPal link on the upper right-hand corner to make your contribution today or send a check payable to Georgetown Comunidad Scholarship Association to GCSA, P.O. Box 3531, Redwood City, CA 94064.

Felicidades Mariana, Yvonna, Christine and Marta!

Congratulations once again to Mariana Hernandez, Yvonna Wade, Christine Nguyen and Marta Aparicio for being selected as part of this semester's scholarship recipients! We're proud to have them on the Hilltop! Below are biographies and photos of our recipients.

Mariana Hernandez (COL ’14) is in the Georgetown College and plans to major in Mathematics and minor in Science, Technology, and International Affairs within the Walsh School of Foreign Service. Mariana is involved in several activities at Georgetown, including the Georgetown Meyers Institute for College Preparation and the Living Learning Community of Justice, Diversity and Action. She is also a founding member of Hermanas Unidas de Georgetown, a student organization that focuses on building healthy relationships among the Latino women and men on campus, as well as advocating for issues, such as immigration, civil rights, and the importance of being bi-cultural. Recently, Mariana was selected for membership in the Carroll Fellow Initiative at Georgetown University. The University describes the program as a “flagship opportunity for Georgetown’s most academically talented and ambitious undergraduates.” In her spare time, Mariana enjoys dancing and engaging in activities on campus that reflect her multicultural values. She participated in Reventon Latino during the fall of 2010 and is currently working on the Asia Fest 2011 showcase, where she will perform a traditional dance.

Yvonna Wade (COL ‘12) is pursuing a degree in Government and a minor in Theology. A native of East Orange, New Jersey, Yvonna developed a passion for serving inner city communities. Recently, Yvonna was awarded the Young Leaders for Change Award, commending her on her outstanding commitment to serving her community. In December 2009, Yvonna was selected to participate in an exchange program sponsored by the Republic of China’s Ministry of Education, where she participated in language programs as well as cultural activities. Yvonna has an interest in politics and international affairs, which inspired her to study abroad during the fall 2010 semester at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. In Cape Town, Yvonna volunteered at a local charter school for students in Cape Town. Yvonna founded a mentoring program, Sisters of the Cape, which was created to cultivate dialogue among young women from local townships, while building lifelong friendships and support systems. While in the Washington, D.C., Yvonna has coupled her interest in politics with invaluable work experience. Yvonna has interned with political analyst and Georgetown University professor Donna Brazile, as well as Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey. After graduation, Yvonna plans to attend law school and is interested in pursuing a career in public office.

Christine Nguyen (MSB’12) is a junior in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. She is pursuing a degree in marketing with a minor in English. Christine was born in Guam, but she and her siblings spent most of their lives in Houma, Louisiana. She is the proud daughter to Steve and Mary Nguyen, both immigrants of Vietnam. At Georgetown, Christine works in the Undergraduate Admissions Office as a student assistant. She is active in campus life and participates in the Georgetown University Vietnamese Student Association and in the Dahlgren Chapel Community Choir. In the fall 2010 semester, Christine studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her major accomplishments include being selected for and participating in the Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America Program in 2007. With her passion for diversity concerns and community building, she hopes to one day become the director and/or founder of a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing leadership and educational opportunities for students of underrepresented backgrounds.

Marta Aparicio (COL ’14) was born and raised in Guatemala before coming to the United States at age 11. In high school, Marta managed to deftly juggle two part-time jobs while staying on top of her studies. Marta graduated from high school as the class valedictorian and received the Providence Mayor David Cicilline Youth Excellence Award at the Rhode Island 2010 Hispanic American banquet. Marta plans to pursue a career as an immigration attorney and has an interest in juvenile justice issues. At Georgetown, Marta has been a great role model to the students that she works with through the D.C. Schools Project.

GCSA Spring 2011 Scholarship Recipients

The GCSA is proud to announce our spring 2011 scholarship recipients: Christine Nguyen (2012), Mariana Hernandez (2014), Yvonna Wade (2012) and Marta Aparicio (2014). Congratulations to Christine, Mariana, Yvonna and Marta! These women are tremendous contributors to their communities and we are proud to have them as Hoyas! Check our blog again soon as photos and biographies will follow shortly.

As expected, all of our applicants this semester were impressive. Our awesome Selection Committee was both excited and inspired by the applicants’ passion and commitment to the community. It was tough selecting only 4 recipients from our applicant pool, but our Selection Committee was thoughtful and thorough throughout the selection process. A BIG gracias to the members of our Selection Committee this semester: Hugo Tzec (’02), Raymund Acevedo (G ’06), Mayra Fernandez (’03), Joseph Almeida (’05), Octavio Gonzalez (’06), Vicente Garcia (’05), Juan Venegas (’01) and Levee Brooks (’04). GCSA is forever grateful for the insight and support from caring Hoya alums like them!

Deadline Extended for 2011 Spring Semester GCSA Scholarship

The GCSA has extended the deadline for the 2011 Spring Semester GCSA Scholarship. The new deadline is 9:00PM Tuesday, February 22, 2011. Please submit a complete application package to scholarships@georgetowncomunidad.org.

To be eligible for the scholarship, the applicant should be:

• A full-time undergraduate student at Georgetown University
• Graduating in 2011, 2012, 2013, or 2014
• Demonstrate financial need
• Not be a past recipient of the GCSA Scholarship

The GCSA Scholarship Application can be retrived from our website at http://www.georgetowncomunidad.org.

Brainstorming the mission...

The GCSA Board of Directors is having its first Annual Meeting of the Board to layout the mission, goals and objectives of the GCSA for the coming years! We'll be hosting an alumni-student mixer on the campus of Georgetown University as well as a scholarship application workshop for undergraduate students. More updates to come!

GCSA Holiday Potluck in Los Angeles

Between Christmas and the New Year, a group of the Georgetown Comunidad got together in Los Angeles, California for a holiday potluck and board game night. It was an awesome gathering of undergrads and alumni from the Southern California area. The event was a great way to gather la comunidad in L.A. and close out 2010 with a spirit of community and family. The highlight of the night was playing charades by the backyard fire pit. A special word of thanks goes to Joe Saucedo for organizing the event and Carlos Avila for hosting the potluck at his home in Montebello. Look out for more GCSA gatherings in 2011!

Felicidades and Thank You!

The GCSA is proud to announce our first ever upper class scholarship recipients: Brenda Garcia and Alejandro Gonzalez. Both Brenda and Alejandro play pivotal roles in the comunidad at Georgetown.

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Alejandro Gonzalez
SFS '12, Miami, FL
Born in the small town of Güira de Melena, Cuba, Alejandro came to the United States with his parents in 1997. Living in Miami allowed him to grow up enjoying the beauty of American culture while also developing a strong passion for his raices cubanas. This same passion has motivated Alejandro to be deeply involved in spreading awareness of Cuba to the outside world. Alejandro led the Cuban-American Student Association at Georgetown and organized a trip to the island with students and faculty. Alejandro is equally passionate about making quality education accessible to immigrant families. He has created and taught the Citizenship and Naturalization class for the DC Schools Project at Georgetown and is involved in spreading awareness about the DREAM Act on and off campus. Alejandro is currently a junior majoring in International Politics in the SFS and plans to work in Latin America upon graduation. His favorite thing about Georgetown is the strong bonds of friendship he has with people from all over the world. He loves to spend time with family and friends, try new kinds of food, and dance latin music.

Brenda Garcia
SFS '11, McAllen, TX
Brenda Garcia is currently a Senior at Georgetown University and comes from McAllen, Texas. She is majoring in International Politics with a certificate in Women's and Gender Studies. While at Georgetown, Brenda has been thoroughly invested in the Latino community serving as the treasurer of M.E.Ch.A. and spearheading the 2009 East Coast Chicano Student Forum Conference: "Narcocultura: Drug-trafficking and its Effects on Latino Communities." She is a Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Fellow and recently interned with the Democratic consulting firm, Molly Allen Associates, working for multiple congressional campaigns. She recently got accepted into Teach For America and will be teaching secondary math in Philadelphia next year!

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Our selection process this cycle was, as expected, tough! The GCSA Selection Committee dedicated many hours to reviewing all 17 scholarship applications and had the difficult task of selecting two applicants from a stellar applicant pool. We appreciate all the hard work of Gloria Gasca ('03), Jose Barragan ('04), Berenice De La Parra ('97), Maria Moser ('04), Christina Estrada ('09) and Octavio Gonzalez ('06). Mil gracias!

Coming up next - another round of scholarships for first year and upper class students to come for spring 2011. Keep a look out for application materials.

Another important update - fundraising! We are currently raising scholarship funds for 2011 and we need your help! Consider making a small donation to the GCSA to keep supporting students like Brenda and Alejandro. To donate online, click on the "Donate" PayPal button on the top right hand side of our blog, or mail a check made out to the Georgetown Comunidad Scholarship Association to P.O. Box 3531, Redwood City, CA 94064. We hope we can count on your support!

Meet Aya and Jesus, the Fall 2010 Comunidad Scholars...

Aya Waller-Bey
Detroit, Michigan
Aya Waller-Bey is a first-year student at Georgetown University. Aya hails from Detroit, Michigan where she attended Renaissance High School and was heavily involved in various leadership-formation activities, including the LEDA Scholars program at Princeton University and the New Detroit Camp Enterprise. Aya is a proud Detroiter and is passionate about returning to her home community: “The images of Detroit portrayed in the media have only served as fuel for me. While the world sees a light bulb whose light is beginning to dim… I see a light radiating now more than ever... I feel that I not only have a responsibility to bring about awareness to the issues troubling the cities, but also to be fully committed to… a community that others have written off as a failure.” With the unconditional support of her family, Aya became the first person in her family to pursue higher education and plans to pursue a major in sociology in Georgetown College.

Jesus Burboa

San Diego, California

Jesus Burboa is the first in his family to go to college and comes to Georgetown from San Diego, California. As a high school student, Jesus co-founded a nonprofit organization by the name of The Common Thread and hosted a conference for first-generation college goers on the campus of University of California, San Diego. At Georgetown, Jesus is a freshman representative to GU Financial Literacy, which helps inform students on issues of money management, dances in Ritmo y Sabor, the GU Latin dance ensemble, and is a GU Peer Counselor. Jesus believes “community is familia. It is the thread that ties in hundreds of people that have endured the same experiences, sacrifices; but most of all, a group of people who love each other.” Jesus credits his success to the work ethic he learned from his father, who took on two jobs to support Jesus and his family: “As a teenager, I worked alongside my dad, cleaning the mirrors in bathrooms as he mopped the floor… [His] love has inspired me to reach my greatest achievements and to never give up.”

Fall 2010 Recipients Selected!

A big congratulations to Jesus Burboa and Aya Waller-Bey, our fall 2010 scholarship recipients! Photos and biographies of Jesus and Aya are coming soon.

Selecting two recipients was a tall order for the members of the Selection Committee. An impressive group of applicants submitted materials. Our Selection Committee spent hours thoughtfully reviewing the applications and selecting our two recipients. A big gracias to: Gloria Gasca ('03), Octavio Gonzalez ('06), Berenice De La Parra ('97), Christina Estrada ('09), Maria Moser ('04), and Jose Barragan ('04). I'm thankful to them for donating their time and expertise to the Selection Committee.

Thanks to our generous donors, we've opened up our scholarship opportunities to upper class students. Applications will be released shortly.

First year students also have another opportunity this year for scholarships - be on the look out for the spring 2011 scholarship application!

Applications are in!

Fresh off of our scholarship deadline, we're proud to share that we received 19 applications for the fall scholarship cycle! This is an increase in applications from the same time last year.

Our Selection Committee is hard at work reviewing the talents and accomplishments of the first-year students who applied. It's going to be tough selecting two recipients from such a polished group of students, but our Selection Committee is up for the challenge. Be on the look out for updates soon!

Hoya Saxa!

Reunión y Despedida 2010... ¡Gracias!

A great big thank you to the parents, undergrads, incoming students who came out to Reunión y Despedida 2010! The event was a huge success and a lot of fun. It was great seeing old friends and meeting the incoming students. In a particularly special way, it was great to see parents (including my own!) who came out to support the students getting ready to start the fall semester on the Hilltop. Check out pictures of the event on Facebook and look out for a recap of the event on this blog pretty soon.

Carnitas (with a Vegetarian Option) and Good Company...

RSVPs for the first Reunión y Despedida happening in Los Angeles this Saturday, August 14. have been rolling in from near and far (alumni from Chicago, San Francisco and San Diego have RSVPed!) and we are excited for the contingent of alumni (young and old) and undergraduate students (just young) who have emailed us to say they are coming. So what can you expect at Reunión y Despedida? To start, we can promise some good, home-cooked food. This is a family-friendly event. Family members of the alumni on the organizing committee are making a great spread (both vegetarian and otherwise). Next, we can promise great company. I can guarantee this because I've seen the RSVP list. We've got 30+ awesome Hoyas attending. If you're an undergraduate, you'll have an opportunity to meet some fellow classmates you may never have met before. If you're starting your first semester on The Hilltop, this is your chance to begin plugging into the comunidad you can expect to meet on campus. Of course, this event wouldn't be possible without the donations made by alumni who are attending (hint, hint). If you haven't RSVPed, do so now by emailing georgetown.comunidad@gmail.com. If you've already RSVPed, I'll see you on Saturday!

Almost Here!

We’re only a few weeks away from our first Reunión y Despedida, happening on Saturday, August 14 at the home of our friends Scott Thomas and Liz Raposo in Los Angeles. We’ve been pretty excited to read the RSVPs of undergraduates and incoming students who are gearing up for their first semester on the Hilltop and old friends who are going to travel to Los Angeles for this special event.

If you are an alumnus/a and thinking of coming, make sure you RSVP by making a small donation to cover the costs of the event and offset the cost for undergrads and parents who attend. We suggest a $25 donation, but any donation in any amount is welcome and gets you in. If you are an alumnus/a who cannot attend, I encourage you to make your presence felt by making a donation to GCSA scholarships at the top right-hand corner of this page! There is no stronger statement to make to our undergraduate comunidad than the support of those who came before them!

Some of you may be wondering what Reunión y Despedida is all about. Well, to start, many alumni have been looking for a good occasion to gather. I think celebrating one year of GCSA scholarships is pretty good occasion, right? Despedida will also be an important opportunity for undergraduates and incoming students and their families to meet alumni, faculty and staff community. Finally, Reunión y Despedida will be the first gathering of its kind: a gathering of all members of the Georgetown comunidad: alumni, parents, students, faculty and staff coming.

So….RSVP!! If you are an alumnus/a, make your suggested donation by clicking on the “Donate” button in the above right-hand corner of this page. If you are an incoming student or current student, simply email georgetown.comunidad@gmail.com to RSVP and indicate how many people will be attending with you. This will be a family-friendly event.

RSVP TO REUNIÓN Y DESPEDIDA

It's coming! We're excited to host the first Reunión y Despedida in the Greater Los Angeles area. This is an opportunity for Georgetown's comunidad - alumni/ae, current students, incoming students, parents and administrators - to meet for the first time, catch up with old friends, provide invaluable advice to incoming and returning students and also send off the students to Georgetown with cariño. There will be food, beverages and buena compañía. Don't miss it! All donations cover the costs associated with hosting this event and benefit the Georgetown Comunidad Scholarship Association, an organization dedicated to supporting higher education through scholarship grants and more.

REUNIÓN Y DESPEDIDA
Saturday, August 14, 2010 at 4 p.m.

Alumni/ae Requested Donation: $25
Donations are currently being accepted via PayPal: click here or "Donate" on the right-hand side of this blog
--If you don't have a PayPal account, scroll down to "Don't have a PayPal account?" on the left-hand side and click "Continue."

Current and Incoming Students: There is no charge for you to attend the event, however we ask that you please email georgetown.comunidad@gmail.com to RSVP for the event and indicate how many people will be attending in your party. Please RSVP by August 9, 2010.