RADNOR, Pa.—Cabrini University has announced it will establish the AL DÍA Scholars Fund to empower the next generation of LatinX voices in media, in accordance with a new grant partnership with AL DÍA Media Educational Foundation in Philadelphia.
The scholarship fund will award $5,000 annually to a rising senior Communication student who is of Hispanic descent, or a student from any other underrepresented community who demonstrates financial need.
The AL DÍA Media Educational Foundation is the nonprofit arm of AL DÍA News Media, whose founder, and CEO, Mr. Hernán Guaracao, is a member of Cabrini’s Board of Trustees.
“The higher education system is surrounded by a tall wall that keeps many young Americans of Hispanic descent from crossing over and accessing the full promise of the American society,” said Guaracao. “Very often see the wall is financial, but sometimes it is also built in the system, putting the entire American society at risk.”
“Mother Cabrini’s vision of liberating the youngest Americans through the refinement and validation of higher education, is more pressing today than in the America she lived in 100 years ago, as the U.S. is confronting a historical shortage of professional labor and the steepest competition from abroad.”
“In Media, as it is in Engineering, Medicine, Computer Science or Law,” Guaracao said, “we need many more graduates from our diverse communities to empower the new American society to remain strong and competitive in the 21st Century.”
Cabrini President Donald B. Taylor, PhD, said, “We are grateful to have generous and forward-thinking partners like the AL DÍA Media Educational Foundation to help support our Latinx students preparing to enter an exciting and evolving digital media workforce. This gift is especially timely during a pandemic that has placed disproportionate financial and physical hardship on the Hispanic community in Philadelphia and beyond.”
Totaling $5,000 per year, the scholarship funds will be available to AL DÍA Scholars in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Through the foundation, Cabrini students will also gain access to critical internship, apprenticeship, and fellowship opportunities that position them for growth and success. The first scholarship is being awarded this spring for use in the coming academic year.
The AL DÍA Media Educational Foundation states its mission is to empower American individuals to tell their own stories—of themselves and of their communities. According to its website, the foundation was established to correct an “extremely scarce and often, completely non-existent” presence of Latino and Latina voices in news media and other digital communications.
About Cabrini University
Founded in 1957 by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Cabrini University is a Catholic institution that empowers students to become advocates of social change through an Education of the Heart, focusing on academic excellence, community engagement, and leadership development.
Cabrini enrolls approximately 1,550 undergraduates in more than 40 majors, pre-professional programs, concentrations, and minors on its serene 112-acre campus located 30 minutes from Philadelphia. The University also enrolls 525 students in graduate, doctoral, and professional studies programs at its main campus in Radnor, PA, and at five off-campus locations.
About AL DIA News Media
AL DIA News Media is a unique Journalist-owned news organization that has been in business for the past 25 years. Based in Philadelphia, it focuses on documenting the Best of the American Latino Experience, using multimedia, multilingual and multicultural approaches. It publishes a dual language weekly news magazine, daily newsletters in English and Spanish, and hosts events that showcase the evolving reality of Latino and multicultural communities in America. With an emphasis on Leadership, Politics and Culture, AL DIA contributes to a better understanding of these growing communities in the United States.