The year 2004-2005 marks the start of Wharton’s Latino Latin American Scholarship Program. Funded by our annual Valentine’s Day Rose Sale and in part by our Career Conference, the program was created with the idea that having the opportunity of studying in such great university, we have the obligation to give back to our countries that live such a different reality, providing in turn the opportunity of an education to underprivileged children in Latin America.

Myriads of students all over Latin America lack proper schooling, books, uniforms, and teachers. They are denied an opportunity to grow, to discover, to become the solid foundation of countries that need citizens. Public schooling in Latin America is severely under funded. Private schools, only a tad better than their counterparts, present a huge financial ordeal. The better options, semi-private schools subsidized by private organizations and religious congregations offer valuable education but are constrained by their small capacity and budgets.

Our Scholarship aims at sponsoring the elementary and high school educations of children from these institutions. In specific, we will pay all the schooling of a particular child all the way until his high school graduation. This assures us that our and the children’s effort is rewarded. Our mission is long term, and we will not fail the kids. For this reason, our program began with only twenty sponsored children, and will grow with time.

Last year we began working with the “Fundacion Madre Dolorosa” (www.madredolorosa.org), in Guayaquil, Ecuador, which perfectly fitted the profile of what we were looking for. This year, we extended our scholarship to include fivekids in Nicaragua, through the organization “Hoy Por Mañana”, and one girl (independently) in Venezuela. Our goal is to increase the number of benefited students, sponsoring kids in different Latin American countries (represented by Wharton Latino). If you are interested in collaborating to the fund or have a candidate charity that sponsors Latin American children in their K-12 studies, please contact us at latino@dolphin.upenn.edu, as we are in constant lookout for new charities to partner with. Keep your heads up for the Valentine’s Day Rose Sale, the main fundraiser for this goal.