The college access nonprofit Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI) has announced three new program directors whose leadership will support high school students pursuing college access: Dulce Alonso, a SLI alum and an ESL teacher at Harrisonburg High School, and Sara Shoemaker and Elizabeth Cranford, both counselors at John Handley High School in Winchester.
SLI supports Latino/a/x high school students with college access through rigorous academic challenge, leadership development, scholarships, and supportive mentorships. Through collaborations with university and high school staff, faculty, and students, SLI offers its scholars college access opportunities during high school. In addition, its scholars can become eligible for college dual enrollment and AP course tuition assistance while in high school, and SLI scholarships and technology grants for college success. SLI alumni have attended 28 colleges and universities.
SLI program directors “are the hands and feet of SLI’s mission,” said SLI board member Bryan Pearce-Gonzales during SLI Celebración earlier this month, noting that SLI “changes lives through the people who inspire and … guide the students who are SLI scholars.”
Continuing program directors in Harrisonburg are Hannah Bowman Hrasky, an AVID teacher at Rocktown High School, and Carlos Alemán, PhD, a professor of communication studies at James Madison University, who have both served SLI scholars for more than a dozen years. In Richmond they are Ester Orellana, a teacher at Huguenot High School, and SLI founder Peter Iver Kaufman, who holds the George Matthews & Virginia Brinkley Modlin Chair in Leadership Studies in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond.
With guidance from program directors, SLI scholars participate in various activities that may include:
- Accepting new academic challenges and leadership responsibilities that empower their paths to higher education, with guidance from SLI high school teachers and university student mentors;
- Developing personal statements and goals, evaluating careers and majors, applying for college admittance, and seeking financial aid, all with the help of faculty mentors;
- Participating in family-inclusive programming that fosters skills and knowledge needed for supporting college access; college-level writing and analysis seminars taught by university faculty members; leadership and service partnerships with community organizations; and leadership and networking retreats held on university campuses; and
- Receiving friendship, social support, and help for navigating the challenges that come with being a Latinx college-bound student.
Alonso was a member of Harrisonburg SLI’s first cohort, graduating from Harrisonburg High School and simultaneously completing an associate degree from Blue Ridge Community College in 2015. Two years later she completed her bachelor of arts degree in government and international affairs at George Mason University, where she was an academic mentor and a student success coach with the Early Identification Program and an external vice-president of the Mason DREAMers. She was an Antonin Scalia Law School Global Politics Fellow in 2016, has earned a paralegal studies certificate from JMU, and has worked with medical records at Healthy Community Health Centers.
“For many, including myself, SLI was a place where we discovered our potential, built confidence, and learned that we weren’t alone,” recalled Alonso, standing alongside her now-colleague Bowman Hrasky at SLI Celebración. “As I think about the impact [SLI program directors] Carlos and Hannah had on my life, I’m honored to be able to do the same now with the lives of our scholars. For me, this has definitely been a full circle moment as I’m now on the other side, getting to witness every day the strength, resilience, and brilliance of our scholars. I see the future they’re building, one that is more equitable, more hopeful, and more empowered.”
Shoemaker has been a school counselor since 2006, first for Augusta County Public Schools and in Winchester since 2014, serving most of those years at Quarles Elementary School. She completed a bachelor of science degree in psychology at the University of Mary Washington and a Master of Education in school counseling at the University of Virginia.
Cranford has served as a school counselor in Winchester schools since 2015, including at the Virginia Avenue Charlotte DeHart Elementary, then Daniel Morgan Intermediate, and now at John Handley High Schools. She was previously a SLI program director for the 2023-24 academic year, and has completed a bachelor of science degree in psychology at the University of Mary Washington and a Master of Education in school counseling at James Madison University.
Privately funded by the SLI community of support, since 2012 SLI has served 223 scholars (67 current and 156 alumni) and awarded students more than $913,000, milestones celebrated with donors and event sponsors at SLI Celebración.
“Because of your generosity, we are able to have programming that supports our students both through their high school education and their college pursuits,” Bowman Hrasky shared at the event. “Even more importantly, we’re able to build this community that’s meant so much to so many of our students in a country that is so often telling them that they are not wanted. Moments like this, your support shows them just how many people have their backs, believe in them, and will ultimately be impacted by their success in achieving their goals.”
