Education has long been the keystone of the American experience for immigrant families. Those arriving in this country may face barriers to upward mobility, but they can see their children have the opportunity to get a college education and enhance their competitiveness in the job market. For this reason, immigrant children who are the first in their families to go to college can feel a heightened sense of responsibility to succeed in college, but they are also often in need of financial assistance.
Nowhere are these factors more evident than at Pacific Oaks College where, according to the latest Pacific Oaks Social Impact Report, 50% of students identify as Latinx and the average age of the student body is 36. As learning assistance specialist Ruth Hwang says in a video recently produced by the college, “Many Pacific Oaks students have lived life. They may be coming back for a second degree, and they bring a lot of life experience.”
This commitment to self-determination inspired Michael Horowitz, Ph.D., president of The Community Solution Education System, and his wife, clinical child psychologist Jeannie Gutierrez, Ph.D., to establish the Dr. Michael Horowitz & Dr. Jeannie Gutierrez Immigrant/First Generation Scholarship. “We both share this commitment to first generation, immigrant, and children of immigrant E students,” Dr. Horowitz says.
To apply for the scholarship, students must be a first-generation college or graduate degree seeker or an immigrant, or a child of immigrants. That demographic describes many students at Pacific Oaks, making it, as Dr. Horowitz calls it, “a natural college to identify with the fact that the students are working adults and navigating life’s challenges.”
As is common in the American immigrant experience, the Horowitz- Gutierrez family embodies two vastly different cultural backgrounds. Dr. Gutierrez grew up in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants. When she went to her high school guidance counselor to talk about the next phase of her education, she was told that she might not be cut out for higher education and that were she to be accepted, she shouldn’t expect to do better than a C.
On the other side of the globe, Dr. Horowitz’s parents were actors in the Moscow State Yiddish Theater during the era of Josef Stalin. His father was imprisoned for a time in a Soviet camp, and his mother had to flee for her life when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. When they settled in New York, his parents experienced many challenges in continuing their acting careers in a new language and instilled in their son the belief that education was the pathway to a successful life.
“We were the first in our families to experience the challenge and the transformational power of higher education,” Dr. Horowitz says. “Neither of us had family who could afford academic coaches or parents who had gone to college or professional school and could advise us on what it takes to be accepted into a college and to be successful once there.”
It was that spirit of paving the way for a new generation of graduates that inspired Dr. Horowitz and Dr. Gutierrez to establish this fund. “We want to give students who are first-gen, or immigrants, or children of immigrants the power of a Pacific Oaks education, so that they can improve and in turn improve the lives of their community,” Dr. Horowitz says.
Dr. Jack Paduntin, president of Pacific Oaks College, believes the scholarship aligns well with the college’s unique character.“ Donations to a scholarship fund supporting first-generation students can be the key to unlocking the doors of opportunity for these talented individuals who might not otherwise have the means to pursue higher education,” he says. “By investing in their education, alumni can make a lasting impact on these students and help break the cycle of disadvantage that can hold back upward social mobility and the possibility of improving their community.”
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