The latest recipients are Cheyenne Alcaraz, Burney High School, a member of the Pit River Tribe and of Yana and Wintu descent, who will attend HSU; Tess Wilder-Cervantes, Hoopa High School, a member of the Karuk Tribe, who will attend HSU; Vikki Preston, also from Hoopa High School and likewise enrolled at HSU; and Blythe George, McKinleyville High School, a member of the Yurok Tribe, who is going to Dartmouth.
Each recipient receives full funding for four years to attend the college of her choice. Those who go on to a graduate degree could potentially receive more than $500,000 if it is in the areas of science, computer science, mathematics, engineering, education, library science or public health.
Alcaraz said, “Here in Burney, I am the only one in my entire family to attend college. I have graduated from school early with a 3.8 GPA.”
Wilder-Cervantes, the Karuk member, plans to return to the reservation to teach composition and literature. She joins her cousin Vikki Preston for the start of classes August 25 at Humboldt State.
Blythe George looked at the expense of Dartmouth and realized “the cost of one year is more than my family makes in two. But then with encouragement from my counselors at Indian Education, McKinleyville High School and Educational Talent Search, I applied for the scholarship—and now I’m going to Dartmouth!”
The four North Coast winners are among 1,000 Gates awardees nationwide, selected from more than 13,000 applications. Adrienne Colegrove-Raymond, director of HSU’s Student Academic Services Outreach (SASOP) and Talent Search programs, said, “Because the competition is so great and the application can appear daunting, we have partnered with the American Indian Graduate Center and the Gates Millennium Foundation to establish an annual Gates Scholars Workshop at HSU. There are definitely tips that can give the students an edge.”
HSU has hosted the workshop for four years, providing a key forum for high school counselors and students to learn how to apply for Gates Scholarships. The SASOP framework supports college-bound disadvantaged students, encouraging them to apply to Humboldt State and other institutions with comprehensive outreach services. It also extends early outreach to elementary and middle schools and coordinates a series of CSU scholarships.
Talent Search is a federal TRiO program, an in-school college entrance initiative for identified students in grades six through 12 who are the first in their families to go to college. Talent Search serves 19 Humboldt County secondary schools.
Established in 1999 and funded initially by a $1 billion grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gates Millennium Scholars Program reduces financial barriers for African-American, Hispanic American, American Indian/Alaska Native and Asian Pacific Islander-American students who possess high academic and leadership promise. The program is designed to enlarge their ranks in engineering, education, mathematics, public health, and the sciences. It fosters the successful completion of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, providing seamless support across them.