Adriana Pacheco is one of 19 California students set to receive
the award
Gilroy – Adriana Pacheco, a Mexican immigrant who spent her summers working in the fields to earn extra cash, picked up a $3,000 scholarship check Tuesday evening.
Pacheco, a senior at California State University, Monterey Bay, was one of 19 students statewide to win the William Randolph Hearst/CSU Trustees’ Scholarship for the 2006-07 school year. The Gilroy High School graduate, filled out the application and wrote an essay, after being nominated by her university’s financial aide office.
When Pacheco walks across the stage in May to pick up her diploma, she will be the first member of her family to graduate from a four-year university. Her two older siblings did not attend college but the 22-year-old made sure it was a priority for her younger sister.
“I encouraged her to apply and she got accepted,” Pacheco said.
Her sister is now a freshman at CSUMB. Pacheco, who is majoring in business administration and minoring in Hispanic Culture and History, has already landed a full-time job at the university.
After finishing up her business courses this semester she will serve as a counselor in the financial aide office and spend the rest of her time completing classes for her minor.
While attending CSUMB, Pacheco volunteered to AIDS prevention programs and tutored for the La Union del Pueblo Entero organization in Salinas. Pacheco plans to use the scholarship money for books and to help cover tuition costs.
The 19 scholarship recipients were honored on Tuesday evening by the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach. To honor the founder of the Hearst newspaper chain, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation established a scholarship fund in 1984.
In 1999, the foundation partnered with the CSU Board of Trustees in order to supplement the endowment with contributions from university board members and private donors.
