Five Students Receive 2018 Boxer College Scholarships from the Oscar de la Hoya Foundation
This month, five seniors from Oscar De La Hoya Ánimo Charter High School in Boyle Heights were awarded inaugural Boxer College scholarships by the Oscar De La Hoya Foundation at its 18th Annual Golf Classic. The following students will now be walking onto college campuses this fall with a much lighter financial burden thanks to the Foundation’s generosity:
- William Tejeda, attending UCLA
- Julieta Aguirre, attending UCLA
- Abigail Barahona, attending UCLA
- Louis Lopez, attending Vassar College
- Diego Flores, attending Pitzer College
Oscar de la Hoya and Golden Boy hosted the event at the Lakeside Golf Club to raise funds to help support community programs in East Los Angeles. Celebrity attendees included George Lopez, Michael Peña, Andy Garcia, Richard Schiff, Joe Pesci, Cedric the Entertainer and Don Cheadle.
Green Dot launched a partnership with Oscar de la Hoya and his foundation over 16 years ago. In 2003, we opened a high school with 140 students in a temporary facility at the Salesian Boys and Girls Club in Boyle Heights. The school is committed to providing the families of the Boyle Heights area with an alternative to the neighborhood schools, which struggled to unleash and support the unique brilliance innate in all children. De la Hoya, aligned to the same mission because of his own experiences growing up in East LA, donated the land where his boxing gym once stood to build a permanent new school facility in the heart of Boyle Heights, the first new high school to be built in the community in over 60 years. In recognition of De La Hoya’s generosity and ongoing commitment to the success of the school, it was named Oscar De La Hoya Ánimo Charter High School.
The partnership continues today: At this year’s Sixth Annual Golden Dot Awards, De La Hoya was a title sponsor and a keynote speaker, exhorting students and teachers to reach for the heights and not be turned aside from college, leadership and successful lives by the challenges systems can throw in your path. He celebrated that the school bearing his name and the Green Dot logo is now recognized nationally as among the finest in the country at preparing students for college. De La Hoya continues to work creatively to open more opportunities for youth in East Los Angeles. For many of our students, the cost of college is a serious challenge, and every scholarship helps to ease the burden for both students and their families. Green Dot is grateful to partner with such a champion and his generous sponsors to help ensure all students have the opportunity to go to college.
