LUNA Language Services is proud to spotlight our partnership with Victory College Prep (VCP), a public K-12 charter school on the Southeast side of Indianapolis, to support bilingual students and students from immigrant families.
LUNA is honored to donate toward the 2022 VCP 4-Star Scholarship Fund created to support graduates with demonstrated financial needs who plan to matriculate to college. Awards are renewable for up to four years of undergraduate study.
“We place great importance on community engagement and direct support of our immigrant neighbors. We’re delighted to extend our robust community support initiatives to include this scholarship program,” LUNA Manager of Strategic Engagement Tiffany Hanson shared.
This year’s LUNA 4-Star Scholarship recipient is Denise Pizarro, a graduate of Victory College Prep currently enrolled at IUPUI with plans for a career in healthcare. Denise was first awarded her VCP 4-Star Scholarship in May 2021, a week before her high school graduation ceremony, and the LUNA team is proud to support her education at IUPUI this coming school year.
VCP Executive Director Ryan Gall recognized the gift from LUNA in remarks at a ceremony honoring the recipients from the VCP Class of 2022. As an alumna scholarship winner, Denise sat in the audience at the ceremony and stood as she and LUNA received strong applause from the 200 ceremony attendees. Later, to include her family in her scholarship renewal celebration, VCP made a formal check presentation to Denise outside her home.
Denise earned her 4-Star Scholarship after achieving a high school GPA higher than 4.0, thanks to dual-credit and advanced placement courses offered by VCP. A first-generation American, Denise is also a first-generation college student. She credits the ongoing support of her 4-Star Scholarship Award with removing barriers and easing anxiety for her and her family related to her college matriculation.
LUNA has historically partnered with VCP through internship programs, offering students real-life experience in the language services industry.
“Providing internship opportunities to high school students is an impactful way to not only allow them to explore a career, but also expand their understanding of the behind-the-scenes work that goes along with the visible aspects of the career. Having a full picture of the day-to-day, students can decide if this is really the path they want to follow,” shared LUNA’s Una Hartzell-Baird, Director of Translation and manager of LUNA’s internship program.
“We have been impressed with their students and the important work their team is doing to build better futures in the community,” Hartzell-Baird added.
VCP’s most recent graduates earned:
- a 100% college-acceptance rate
- a combined $3 million in offered college merit awards and scholarships
- a combined 500 college credit hours, nearly an entire semester of college credit per student
You can support the VCP 4-Star Scholarship Fund at www.donorbox.org/victory-college-prep-donations.