Frank Alvarez, President and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), the leading provider of college scholarships to Hispanics across the country, has named Juana Inés Pacheco as Development Director, Northeast Region, Rafaela Schwan as Development Director, Central Region and Fernando Almodóvar as Chief Financial Officer. All of them will report to Alvarez. The staff additions signal HSF’s stepped up efforts to bolster Latino college graduation rates, which is critical as Hispanics now represent over 20 percent of all US Public School children and by mid-century will be over a third ofAmerica’s workforce.
“With our initiative Generation 1st Degree, HSF is working hard to ensure that every Hispanic household in America produces at least one college graduate,” says Alvarez. “We are recruiting talented folks who can help us achieve our mission so that our kids will be the leaders of a college-educated, technologically advanced American workforce, able to compete successfully in the global economy of the 21st century.”
The Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s Board of Directors recently approved the organization’s audited financial statements for fiscal year 2012 during the August meeting. HSF continues to be very efficient with expenses, ensuring that .93 cents of every dollar raised benefits Latino students and their families through scholarships, education, college retention and leadership development services. Over $36 million went directly towards funding scholarships for deserving Latino students, and HSF is well under way to reach its goal of awarding $40 million by end of this fiscal year.
Almodóvar was elected for his experience in both corporate and nonprofit settings, He will immediately begin building finance and accounting team in Los Angeles as HSF prepares to move its headquarters to Southern California this fall. Almodóvar is charged with the administration of HSF’s finances to ensure that more students have access to more scholarships across the country. Almodóvar holds degrees from CSU-Fullerton and Loyola Marymount and was most recently a senior executive at LA UP, a Southern California network of preschools serving the underserved. He also comes from the L.A. Universal Preschool, a non-profit organization that funds high quality preschool for over 10,000 four-year-olds from 320 preschools in Los Angeles County and support the teachers that educate them.
A published expert in the field of economics and community development with twenty years experience in the non-profit sector, Pacheco will be based in New Jersey, spearheading HSF development efforts from the Mid-Atlantic states throughout the Northeast. A graduate of Princeton University, Pachecho most recently served in fundraising capacities for LATINA Style Magazine, the nation’s premiere publication for the Latina professional, and Voto Latino, a youth civic engagement and education organization that combines technology, social media, and celebrity.
Schwan, a graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, will be based in Texas and oversee HSF development efforts in the region. Schwan was prior Assistant Vice President for Programs at Catholic Charities Diocese of Ft. Worth, Development Director at Great Minds in STEM, Executive Director for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Foundation, and the Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists, and most recently Assistant Vice President for Programs at Catholic Charities Diocese of Ft. Worth, TX.
Latino Education is an American Priority
Latinos are the fastest growing population in the U.S. 20 percent of students in our public K-12 schools are Latino and growing. Yet only 19 percent of Latinos hold either a 2-year or 4-year college degree. That’s half the 40 percent rate for the total U.S. population.
Dr. Anthony Carnevale, of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, estimates that between now and 2018, nearly 2/3 of all new jobs will require a college education. That’s nearly 30 million new jobs that require a college education. He also estimates that if current trends continue, 3 million of those American jobs will go unfilled or go offshore because we won’t have enough college graduates to fill them.
HSF has joined the Lumina Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and President Obama in setting a goal for 60 percent of Americans to obtain a “high quality” degree or credential by 2025. The Lumina Foundation recently released an annual tracking report that found that 38.3 percent of working-age adults held at least a two-year degree in 2010, which is up from 37.9 in 2008. However, at the current pace, less than 47 percent of Americans will hold a degree by 2025, which will leave the workforce short by 23 million needed degree-holders.
That is why HSF is leading Generation 1st Degree, an initiative to close the Hispanic degree gap by helping put at least one college degree in every Latino household.
For more information, please visit www.hsf.net.
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