In recognition of their long service and achievements, the college-access nonprofit Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI) has conferred SLI Service Awards on Laura Feichtinger McGrath and Larry Miller, whose terms on the SLI board of directors concluded at the end of 2022. 

Incorporated in 2012 and a 501c3 nonprofit since 2013, SLI creates college access opportunities through collaborations with public school teachers and local university faculty, staff, and student mentors. SLI also offers financial assistance to its scholars, and has awarded more than $392,000 in college scholarships, computer awards, and dual enrollment tuition assistance. Its alumni have attended 21 colleges and universities.

“I am thankful for the contributions of Laura and Larry,” said Fawn-Amber Montoya, Ph.D., SLI board chair and associate dean for diversity, inclusion and external engagement at James Madison University. “SLI is the organization that it is today in large part because of their time and support. Their work has set an example for me of how to serve SLI students best.” 

Feichtinger McGrath, Director of EL Services and Title III for Harrisonburg City Public Schools, is the longest continuously serving board member to date, and was a founding board member. She also served terms as secretary. 

“From SLI’s inception, Laura has ensured that our mission is student-centered. Her experience as an educator has been invaluable to create structures that best serve both our scholars and the children of Harrisonburg City,” said Hannah Bowman Hrasky, SLI program director and teacher at Harrisonburg High School.

“Laura is well respected and trusted in the community and in the Harrisonburg City school district as a champion for the needs of our students and families with immigrant and refugee status. SLI has benefitted from her expertise as an educator, her knowledge of barriers and access, her generosity of time and service, and her wisdom for how to get things done,” said Carlos Alemán, Ph.D., SLI board member and program director and associate professor of communication studies at James Madison University.

“Laura works quietly and relentlessly for our city school students,” said Sylvia Whitney Beitzel, managing editor of the International Journal on Responsibility and recent SLI board member. “She is fierce about their rights to access the education they need. I have seen her hold families, care for students with great affection and respect, and translate what they’ve needed and what they’ve had to give into something tangible. She helps people make connections, she finds the resources, and she builds people up, beyond her job description. It is no wonder she is a founding board member and has been a committed one for this long!”

Miller, a retired banking executive, served as SLI’s director of development 2016-18, then joined the board of directors in 2020 for a three-year term. 

“We knew that we needed to create a director of development role if we wanted to take the next steps of growth, but were also a bit uncertain what that role would look like or how it would transform the organization. By the end of our first meeting, I was absolutely convinced that Larry was the absolute right person to guide us on the next phase of our journey,” Alemán said.

“Larry’s kind and thoughtful guidance structured our future as an organization. His deep personal belief in the mission resonated with our community and helped establish SLI in the Shenandoah Valley,” Bowman Hrasky said.

“I have learned so much from working with Larry at SLI,” said Jason Good, Ph.D., immediate past chair and vice president for enrollment management at Ringling College of Art and Design. “He brings confident and strategic leadership, but does so with humility and in a way that creates space for various viewpoints. He has filled various roles at SLI, always willing to step up as needed with a deep commitment to the community and the scholars.”

Previous SLI Service Awards were conferred upon founding board members Paul Burkholder in 2018 and Phil Helmuth in 2021. 

“Larry’s and Laura’s work leave lasting impacts on the SLI community.  They have always been generous with their time and have provided great direction for us to lead the culture forward,” said Stephania Cervantes, SLI managing director.

Sentara Health has awarded $60,000 to the college-access nonprofit Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI) to increase underserved representation in healthcare.

The grant will support opportunities to develop SLI scholars’ leadership skills and access to skilled health careers, training for SLI mentors, and the strengthening of SLI’s long-term capacity to serve students. In addition, the grant establishes the Sentara SLI Scholar College Award designed to empower SLI scholars to achieve health careers and recognize their leadership in related service and activities.

A response to medical staff shortages plaguing the U.S. healthcare system, the grant is part of Sentara efforts to create a pipeline for young students to their desired healthcare careers while also positively impacting their community’s economics and health equity outcomes.

“By reducing the financial burden on students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, offering stronger mentorship and training opportunities, and removing barriers to higher-paying and more meaningful careers, we are investing in the future of healthcare and empowering the next generation of professionals,” said Becky Sawyer, Sentara executive vice president and chief people officer.

“I’m excited for SLI students to receive support from Sentara,” said SLI board chair Fawn-Amber Montoya. “SLI Scholars will be better prepared to enter higher education because of these types of resources.”  

A 501c3 nonprofit, SLI creates college access opportunities through collaborations with public school teachers and local university faculty, staff, and student mentors. SLI also offers financial assistance to its scholars, since 2012 providing more than $392,000 in college scholarship awards, computer awards, and dual enrollment tuition assistance. SLI alumni have attended 21 colleges and universities.

“SLI scholars are highly capable young people who serve the greater good in meaningful ways,” said Stephania Cervantes, SLI managing director. “Increased access to health careers will result in greater financial security and improved social determinants of health for them, their families, and our communities as a whole.”

Pictured clockwise from top left: Diana Patterson, Fawn-Amber Montoya, Hector Cendejas, Steve Burkholder, and Lisette Carbajal.

The college-access nonprofit Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI) has begun its second decade of service in Virginia by welcoming its newest chair and four new members to its board of directors.

“At its core, SLI is a community-based organization led by volunteer board members committed to our mission to support higher education opportunities for Latinx young people,” said Jason Good, Ph.D., who served as chair from 2019-2022 and is the vice president for enrollment management at Ringling College of Art and Design. “The board has provided vital leadership in SLI’s founding and development over the past decade, bringing us to this moment, and its current and growing strength promises an even brighter future.”

Incorporated in 2012 and a 501c3 nonprofit, SLI creates college access opportunities through collaborations with public school teachers and local university faculty, staff, and student mentors. SLI also offers financial assistance to its scholars, and has awarded more than $392,000 in college scholarships, computer awards, and dual enrollment tuition assistance. Its alumni have attended 21 colleges and universities.

The newly appointed chair and four new board members have backgrounds in higher education, finance, government affairs and policy, social work, advocacy, and business.

Fawn-Amber Montoya, Ph.D. of Harrisonburg has assumed the role of chair. A board member since 2021, she is associate dean for diversity, inclusion and external engagement at James Madison University. Before assuming her role at JMU in 2019, Montoya directed the Honors program at Colorado State University Pueblo, where she received awards for service, advising, and mentoring, was a professor of history who taught courses in race, ethnicity, and gender, and focused on Mexican-American history. She has consulted on numerous museum exhibits, co-authored Practicing Oral History to Connect University to Community, and edited Making An American Workforce: The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company’s Construction of a Workforce during the Rockefeller Years.

“Me ha impresionado el trabajo que se ha logrado en los últimos 10 años y me emociona tener esta oportunidad de servir a mi gente en Virginia,” Montoya said. “I am thrilled to be serving as the board chair for SLI, and excited to work with board members and SLI staff to support high school students. I know how important it is for the Latino/a/x population to have an organization like SLI that can assist high school students with getting to and being successful in higher education.”

Steve Burkholder of Broadway is a financial planner at Everence Financial and joined to be treasurer of the SLI board. He and his wife Olivia have two boys, Carson and Micah, and are active members of Eastside Church where they serve as small group leaders. A graduate of Eastern Mennonite University, he has taught middle and high school math and coached baseball and golf in Shenandoah County Public Schools. 

“I am excited to join this board that cares deeply about the SLI students and hope to provide my areas of expertise to help further its mission,” Burkholder said.

Lisette Carbajal of Richmond is a member of Capital One’s State and Local Government Affairs Group. She also serves as chief of staff for HOLA, Capital One’s Hispanic business/associate resource group. She previously was director of government affairs of the Virginia Health Care Association and a policy advisor and community integration coordinator at Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services. She was appointed as a policy advisor and Latino liaison by Governor Terry McAuliffe to his administration in 2014. 

Carbajal has served on the Virginia Board of Health Professions and the Virginia Advisory Board in Service and Volunteerism, and currently serves on the Board of Visitors to Mount Vernon, Alzheimer’s Association: Greater Richmond Chapter Board of Directors, and Virginia Health Catalyst Board of Directors. She is also engaged with other Alzheimer’s-related organizations including the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers and Hilarity for Charity.

Carbajal’s parents immigrated from Lima, Peru. Despite being born in the United States, English is her second language. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in foreign affairs with a concentration in Latin America, and a master’s degree in Public Administration from Virginia Tech. She is married to Graham Elder and has a goldendoodle Lilo.

“My experience navigating through the higher education system was an unknown path, as no one in my family had ever gone to college before me,” she said. “Being able to guide students in achieving their goal to obtain a higher education is a passion of mine since I know the opportunities it can bring. SLI’s work not only allows students to explore opportunities outside of their surroundings; it also allows them to achieve the social and economic success many immigrant parents wish for their children.”

Hector Cendejas of Arlington is the family reunification program director at Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington, an adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and George Mason University, and an online adjunct field liaison at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work. He has been a social work field instructor for students from VCU, GMU, Capella University, and Columbia University. 

He has served on the Manassas Park city council, the human services policy committee and board of directors of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, and the human development and education policy and legislative committees of the Virginia Municipal League. He was an alternate commissioner for the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission and the Virginia Railway Expressway, and an advisory board member for Mason and Partners Clinic.

Cendejas received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Georgetown University, a master of social work in community organization, planning, and administration from University of Southern California, and a master of education in human development and psychology, child advocacy strand, from Harvard University.

“I believe in serving our community of future leaders!” he said.

Diana Patterson of Winchester is owner and CEO of DSP Marketing & Consulting and a Hispanic/Latino business consultant for Laurel Ridge Small Business Development Center. A native of El Salvador and naturalized in the United States in 2018, she also serves on the United Way of Northern Shenandoah Valley board of directors, the Shenandoah University School of Business board of advisors, and the governor’s Virginia Latino Advisory Board, for which she chairs the business and workforce committee. She was an inaugural member of the SLI advisory council. 

“I grew up worrying that my family or I could be deported any day, translating for my parents, and accepting the fact that I would become just another blue collar worker like my mother and father. I am now passionate about mentoring youth who may still be in that situation, to help them appreciate their bilingualism, have gratitude for the pressure to mature at an early age, and develop a desire to become the next generation of community servants and leaders,” she said.

“I am delighted to have such expansive representation on the board of directors,” said Stephania Cervantes, SLI managing director. “Along with their expertise, the new members provide perspectives that deepen SLI’s commitment to inclusive excellence through leadership. Our cohort of scholars will benefit significantly from seeing and learning from a group of people that represent their cultural identity and academic aspirations. ¡Será una experiencia muy enriquecedora trabajar junto a ellos!”