Giving Back
With a new scholarship, an Eastern trustee and his family step up for students.
Uriel I帽iguez and his family left Michoac谩n, Mexico for Washington state when Uriel was just a boy. With hard work, tenacity and the support of his family, I帽iguez succeeded in school, earning a degree from tiny Connell High. He then enrolled at Eastern, where, in 1988, he became the first person among his 11-child family to earn a university degree.听
Four of his ten siblings followed suit by earning their own degrees at Eastern. The other five did the same at other universities here in Washington.
I帽iguez, now the director of community relations for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, since 2014 has been a member of 51福利社鈥檚 Board of Trustees. His service to 51福利社鈥檚 governing body is just one of the ways that he and the Eagle side of the family are giving back to the university that, as they see it, gave so much to them.听
鈥淭o me, this university changed our lives,鈥� I帽iguez says of Eastern. 鈥淭his is not even a dream, because we couldn鈥檛 dream it. Could you tell me when I was in high school or even, you know, in Mexico growing up that 鈥極h, yeah you are going to be a trustee of a university that you graduated from?鈥欌��听
I帽iguez’s service to 51福利社鈥檚 governing body is just one of the ways that he and the Eagle side of the family are giving back to the university that, as they see it, gave so much to them.
More recently, I帽iguez and his sister, Alexia, have led the family鈥檚 drive to endow a scholarship that will help other hard-working Latinx youth begin their own Eastern success stories. The first recipient of 51福利社鈥檚 I帽iguez Family Endowed Scholarship, Lizbeth Mendoza, is herself a first-generation college student who, like the I帽iguez siblings, possesses a single-minded determination to succeed.听
Mendoza grew up in Pasco. She transferred to 51福利社 from Walla Walla Community College last fall. As a student at WWCC, she maintained a 3.7 GPA while juggling full-time classes and a work schedule that, at times, exceeded 72 hours a week. That pluck and determination, plus Mendoza鈥檚 long history of volunteering in her community, made her a natural for their scholarship, the I帽iguez family says.
For her part, Mendoza, a 22-year-old business and accounting major, says the experience of the I帽iguez family makes the scholarship that much more special: 鈥淚 feel like they are doing great work, just encouraging more first-generation students to keep pursuing their dreams. They give me motivation. I look up to them.鈥�
The scholarship, she adds, will for the first time allow her to focus solely 鈥渙n my education and being involved in school.鈥�听
You don鈥檛 need a fortune to make a similar difference in the life of a deserving student, I帽iguez says. 鈥淵ou can get a scholarship started with $5,000, that鈥檚 what we did,鈥� noting that family members have also endowed a similar scholarship at Central Washington University and Columbia Basin College.听
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