Latino Students Given Boost Toward College : Foundation: Financial aid and moral support is provided Latino students by a foundation that hopes recipients will some day aid the community.

Keven Lippert will be the first person from his family ever to go to college, and when he leaves for his first year at UC Berkeley he will take with him moral and financial support beyond that of his family.

Armed with a $500-a-year scholarship for as long as he remains in college and the encouragement of his “mentor,” Lippert is one of 105 students who will have an extra boost toward successfully completing their college careers because of the Beca Foundation.

“Nobody in my family has been to college before, and now I’ll have someone to go to with questions. More important than the money is the support,” said Lippert, who graduated from Rancho Buena Vista High School in Vista.

“Getting the scholarship gives me more support when I need it, especially the mentor,” said Lippert, referring to Beca’s program matching students with Latino graduates who help guide them through college’s trials and tribulations.

And Lippert hopes that, by getting through college, he will be able to act as a role model for his 13-year-old sister, Jennifer, when she reaches college age.

A businesslike approach to fund raising has been the trademark of the San Marcos-based Beca Foundation, the largest and fastest-growing Latino scholarship organization in San Diego County.

The North County organization, established five years ago by a group of Latino business leaders, this year increased fourfold the amount of scholarship money it awarded to Latino students, bestowing $115,000 in scholarships.

That’s twice as much as the second-largest such organization.

“We reorganized, made a business plan and a commitment to open an office and hire an executive director. We made an effort to (seek) grants, find corporate sponsors, set up a data base and get the word out,” said Jon Frandell, a member of the foundation’s executive board and a vice president of Inland Empire National Bank.

“Getting the word out” resulted in the foundation’s largest single donation, from Edward and Mary Currivan, who pledged $300,000 last month as part of the Alice Newell Joslyn Fund. The $300,000 will be distributed to Beca over several years.

“It served our need and desire for a long time,” said Edward Currivan, who had considered opening a school for nurses in San Diego. “We’ve been wanting to help the Latinos, and we also feel that there is a great need for them in the field of nursing.”

Currivan, whose wife, Mary, is the daughter of Alice Newell Joslyn, said he was referred to the Beca Foundation by chance during a conversation with the maitre d’hotel of a Carlsbad restaurant while having dinner there.

At the time, the foundation was not primarily geared toward helping students interested in medical careers, but now, because of the Currivans’ donation, more than half the students who benefit from the organization are pursuing medical careers.

Well represented among the foundation’s 40 corporate sponsors are high-tech firms, such as Hewlett-Packard, Unisys and Hughes Aircraft, as well as local financial institutions such as First National Bank and Escondido National Bank.

The foundation hopes to address the growing Latino high school dropout rate and to try to steer more students into college.

“Currently, 18% of the population in San Diego is Hispanic, and, in 10 years, 40% to 50% of the student population will be Hispanic,” Frandell said. “About 45% drop out of high school, of those (who) graduate, only 22% make it to college, and only 7% of those graduate.”

Beca, Spanish for “scholarship,” began five years ago when it supported 10 students. Last year, the group gave out 28 scholarships totaling $25,000.

Most students receiving scholarships, which are based on both need and academic performance, are from North County.

“Our ultimate goal is to try and reach Hispanic students who are at the elementary school age to begin to get them thinking on setting their sights on something higher than blue-collar jobs and to provide them the opportunity to shoot for college as opposed to limiting themselves,” said David Ronquillo, one of Beca’s founders and an attorney based in Escondido.

Although Beca’s success is universally admired among Latino fund-raisers, some feel that Beca’s success should be the norm rather than the exception.

Three years ago, Pascual Martinez of the Assn. of Mexican-American Educators attempted to begin an umbrella scholarship foundation made up of San Diego Latino professional organizations, as opposed to an independent scholarship organization, but the effort fell flat.

“I really found it disturbing that we had our little turf fights,” said Martinez, whose own organization gave out more than $8,000 in scholarships this year. “Everybody wanted the spotlight, and I would have to say that that was one of my biggest frustrations.”

“We have rivalries among ourselves that are not necessary if we would only focus on the needs of the students,” said Martinez, director of the child development program at San Diego city schools.

Beca and the San Diego-based Alba 80 Society, the only other Latino scholarship organization in the county that distributes more than $50,000 a year in scholarships, have informally divided the county into two.

“They respect the fact that Alba is in San Diego doing a lot of fine work, and we respect the fact that Beca is in North County,” said Alba 80 president and founder Martha Contreras.

The 11-year-old independent scholarship organization distributed awards to 43 students this year, Contreras said, and has expanded its list of activities since its inception to include self-esteem programs for junior-high students and an ambassador program, in which college students visit high schools and junior highs to act as role models for those interested in higher education.

Alba 80’s corporate sponsors include General Foods, Coca-Cola and Big Bear supermarkets.

Beca’s scholarships too come with more than just money, including support from the Latino professional community in the form of mentors. Every scholarship recipient is matched with a mentor to help guide them through college.

“Being a mentor is a really great experience,” said Ed Payan, a Beca mentor for a freshman at UCLA and a chemical engineer with Hughes Aircraft in Carlsbad. “It lets me share with a student some of the experiences I had when I was in college, and the mistakes I made.”

“The original concept was that a lot of kids didn’t make it to college because of two things: (lack of) financial support and moral support and encouragement,” Frandell said.

“What we try to do with the mentor program is say, ‘I care that you graduate,’ and the kids internalize it,” said Frandell, attributing the fact that none of the foundation’s scholarship recipients have dropped out of college to the mentor program.

Beca bases its scholarships on both the students’ academic performance in high school and their financial need. Students compete for the scholarships after submitting applications, which include letters of recommendation and an essay on “how your family has influenced you and what if any special attributes you would like to pass on to your child.”

One of the requisites for receiving one of the $500- to $2,000-a-year scholarships is a willingness to put back resources into the Latino community, as the members of Beca have been doing as mentors.

“One of the main questions in the interview is, ‘What are you going to give back to the community?’ “‘ Frandell said. “Some of the students interviewed were very qualified, but when asked why they want to go to college, it was basically because they wanted to drive a Porsche.”

Beca representatives also go to high schools to emphasize the importance of high school and college, and the organization now hopes to begin programs to educate Latino parents on how the educational system works by establishing workshops and publishing pamphlets.

“The educational system in Mexico works very differently than here in the U.S.,” Frandell said. “You have to teach (Latino parents) how the educational system works, how to go up and meet the teachers and principals, and the basic skills of getting involved. Many studies show that, if you look at the high-achieving students and go home, you find involved parents.”