Delta County scholarship advocating for “equitable spaces” opens for high school seniors

The student is also required to be a graduating high school senior in Delta County looking to pursue a higher education after graduation. Higher education includes any continuing education, including technical school, community college, a four year university or culinary school.

While the application process requires students to provide a transcript, Marisa Edmondson, co-founder of DC C.A.R.E.S. (DCC), noted that scholarships will not be awarded based on merit and GPA alone.

“When we’re looking holistically at the scholarships, that’s kind of the thing that we give the lowest points to,” said Edmondson of the selection process. “Obviously, we want to see that students are trying, but we realize there are a lot of barriers. A large portion [of the application] that we look at is need-based.”

Edmonson continued that Hispanic students make up a large portion of the county’s students of color, many of whom have to work jobs throughout high school in order to help support their families due to lower incomes.

Many Hispanic students are first-generation citizens, whose parents may or may not speak English. This language barrier could potentially prevent a parent from being able to provide help in areas such as applications or studying for entrance exams such as the SAT.

Financial barriers often mean parents can’t afford helpful aides, such as study guides.

Edmondson added that barriers are heightened when factoring in racial identity or gender identity. As a former student of Latin-descent, she said students facing these barriers often struggle mentally, as well as in school.

She noted that having to worry about inequality and equity make it more difficult for students to focus on grades or GPA, which in turn can impact access to a scholarship.

“I don’t think a lot of people understand that [barrier] unless they are a person of color, or they are LGBTQ, and they’ve gone through that and been told, ‘you’re blowing this out of proportion–this isn’t a big deal,’” Edmondson said. “But you see this every single day, how you’re treated differently.”

Edmonson, originally from Paonia, currently operates DCC from Washington D.C., but began the coalition while living at home in Paonia during the pandemic.

“It made sense to focus on where I’m from,” she said.

DCC’s establishment followed a letter penned by Edmonson and a fellow alumni in June 2020 that included a list of requests addressing inequalities and discrimination in the school district.

Edmondson said the process ended, for the most part, with the district refusing to work with them.

Regarding the letter and DCC, Kurt ClayDCSD’s assistant superintendent, said that the district had addressed Edmondson’s letter and worked to communicate on most of the letter’s contents, but didn’t follow through on all the requests.

Clay added that the school district is “constantly” working with issues surrounding equity and equality in the district and are open at any time to working collaboratively.

The assistant superintendent cited the district’s current policies in place addressing the issues, as well as an upcoming event on March 31 featuring international speaker, Keith Hawkins, who will address “leadership, diversity and sense of belonging.”

DCC has been fundraising for the $3,000 in scholarship funds, as well as working to make the application more accessible to students. The application is in the process of being translated to Spanish and is available in a hardcopy that can be filled out and mailed in. The application can also be emailed in or submitted via a Google Form on the coalition’s website.

“Ultimately, we just really wanted to find a way to support these kids in hopefully pursuing whatever makes them passionate,” Edmonson said, who hopes to continue the scholarship on an annual basis.

Applications must be submitted by April 15.

Edmondson’s letter can be read at https://bit.ly/DCCletter and the scholarship application can be found at https://bit.ly/DCCares