Even though soccer had always been a big part of his life, the suspense was nerve wracking. Daniel ’21 had never before tried out for a school athletic team, and that February night, along with 60 or 70 hopeful peers, he watched as his high school’s coaches filled their rosters. 

One by one, players – including some of his closest friends – were called into the office and named to either the varsity or junior varsity team.

“I started getting nervous,” he said. “I was like, ‘Wow, the spots are filling up.’” 

And then, finally, Daniel was called. The coach said he’d liked what he’d seen in Daniel: a work ethic and willingness to put his body into defensive play. 

“He loved how I was one of the people who actually love defending,” Daniel recalled. “He told me, ‘Congratulations, you made the team.’”

The varsity team, at that.

“I walked out of the office with a big smile on my face,” he said. “All my friends we came and we cheered together. It was really nice.”

But maybe not surprising, considering Daniel’s general approach to life. 

*The COVID-19 pandemic subsequently disrupted Daniel’s soccer plans. In May 2021 he sent this update: “I am finally able to play soccer with my friends once again, which has been amazing.”

PAIN – AND PLANS

A junior, Daniel is a scholar in the Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI), a nonprofit that creates college opportunities for first-generation Latino/x high school students. He’s a member of the Key Club and the culture club Latinos Unidos, and president of the Spanish Honor Society.

His academic load is anything but lightweight: Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History, AP English, an online college class, AP Calculus, and AP Chemistry. During another class period, he offers math peer tutoring.

Already certified in phlebotomy through a high school class last year – but still too young to work in the field – Daniel’s goal is to be a nurse anesthetist. 

It’s an ambition that he came by honestly: “I was a really clumsy kid, so I would get hurt a lot,” he said. When he’d need stitching or other treatment, “I would always feel the pain.”

He plans first to become a registered nurse at community college, then earn a bachelor of science degree in nursing, and then pursue a master’s degree to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist.

“What’s notable about Daniel,” said his SLI program director, “is his genuine, deep caring for people. He is a devoted student who is learning the long-term benefits of perseverance and consistent, continued work. Daniel applies himself to excel in academics, yet keeps life in perspective with all that is around him.”

PATH TO SLI

Daniel was born in Arlington, Virginia; his family moved when he was two years old. His parents, from El Salvador, didn’t attend college – but always wanted a “better future” for their children.

“They made sure that I kept it in the back of my head,” he said. “They really want what’s best for me.”

His older sister, a SLI alum, finished high school with a year’s worth of college credits and is now on track to earn a bachelor’s degree in business.

“I saw the benefits that SLI was giving her,” Daniel said, “like preparing her to gain leadership skills as well as how to get a feel for college and how to prepare for it.” In ninth grade he was recommended to the program by a teacher and applied, then was interviewed and accepted.

“I wanted to gain those skills that SLI had to offer,” he said. “I’m grateful to SLI for giving me such a great opportunity.” 

Daniel has participated in SLI book seminars on analytic thinking skills, and the program matched him with a university student mentor who has given him “really helpful” time management tips for academic success. 

SLI also pushed him out of his comfort zone to start new friendships, he said, and to collaborate with others and join in team-building service projects such as a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event packaging food for community members. 

“I don’t see myself as the same person I was two and a half years ago,” he said. “I see myself as someone who’s more outgoing. My work ethic has increased, and my determination to do something. There’s times where maybe the results aren’t what I want, but I’m always pushing through to make sure that everything improves for the next time.”

FAITH ROOTS

Daniel and his family are devout Seventh Day Adventists, and his guiding principle is “Ama a tu prójimo como a ti mismo,” he said: “Love others just as you love yourself.”

“It’s how I have respect for myself and try to motivate myself,” he said. “Just as my parents have taught that mindset to me, I want to teach that mindset to my friends.”

His faith commitments, he said, have translated into his other commitments, as well: to his studies, his community league soccer teammates, his sense of purpose even when things get tough.

“My parents have always taught me to never give up,” he said. “Every time I’m on a car ride with my dad, he always gives me tips or advice, to always make sure to do well in school. If you ever fall down, make sure to always pick yourself back up and always keep pushing forward, because all that hard work will eventually pay off in the end.”

Today, it’d be different. But then, back in November, the Richmond Times-Dispatch headline quoted her as saying, “I didn’t know that I could make a difference.”

Because now Fernanda knows she can. 

A Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI) scholar and the senior class president at Huguenot High School in Richmond, Fernanda had written a letter to the Richmond mayor and schools superintendent and the Virginia secretary of education honoring her AP government teacher, a “personal mentor.” 

She had also included in the letter a request for tickets to see the musical “Hamilton” – but she never expected that 118 tickets would be donated to her class and teacher and “dozens of other Richmond students and teachers,” the article said.

“I can change things,” Fernanda now says. “I can make a difference.”

FROM ‘BORING’ TO ‘THE DREAM’

The “Hamilton” tickets experience has only strengthened Fernanda’s resolve to be a changemaker. She had already discovered her interest in political science, which she said began with SLI assignments. A nonprofit that creates college opportunities for Latino high school students, SLI offers its scholars rigorous academic challenge, leadership development, supportive mentorships and scholarship awards. 

Fernanda used to think that learning about other countries and history was “so boring,” she said – but in SLI she began learning at a new level about such topics as the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case or the systematic suppression of indigenous Central American cultures.

“I want to be very involved with the community,” she said. “That’s something that can impact a lot of people. I can start locally, and then – the dream would be to one day help in policymaking or the US government, and change systems.”

She has already begun, serving on the superintendent’s student advisory committee, where she learned that “you can complain all day long, but if you can’t find a solution or an alternative way to solve it, then you’re basically complaining for no reason,” she said.

‘WE HAVE TO GO’

SLI “feels like a family,” Fernanda said, a supportive place with other college-minded Latino students. But SLI has impacted her family of origin, too.

Fernanda was born in North Carolina and raised in Virginia. Her parents, from Mexico and Guatemala, have worked in housekeeping, restaurants and sock and poultry factories; her dad now pastors and works in construction. Neither holds a college degree, although before immigrating her dad had begun medical training. 

They are faithful attenders of Saturday SLI, when guest speakers educate scholars’ families about accessing college: The FAFSA application, for example, or the difference between public and private colleges – “things that I wouldn’t know how to explain to my parents or wouldn’t even know,” Fernanda said. 

That programming has led them to be “more involved with my academics,” she said. “When it’s a Saturday SLI, they’re like, ‘Okay, we have to go.’ It’s not ‘Do we have time to go?’”

‘THE OPPORTUNITY TO FAIL’

SLI has given Fernanda a “perspective of what college is going to be like,” she said, thanks to the college-level reading and writing projects assigned by SLI founder and director Peter Iver Kaufman, a professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond.

“Sometimes when we write papers for Dr. Kaufman, our papers come back scratched up with so many comments and notes, and we have to check this, and grammar check that,” she said. “I get the opportunity to fail, and I get the opportunity to learn and grow from that, rather than going to college fresh off the boat, getting out of high school and hitting reality.”

The hard work has immediate payoffs, too.

“I apply the skills I learned with SLI to my school here,” she said. “Before SLI, if I had to write a one-page essay I would think that was the worst thing ever. And then I came to SLI and we have to write seven-to-ten-page essays, and we have to learn how to articulate a thought and make sure we have evidence to back it up. So now when I get school work, it’s easier, because I’ve gotten practice from SLI.”

‘HAMILTON’

While getting to see “Hamilton” was “a dream come true,” Fernanda said, what most excited her about the whole experience was having helped 117 others see it, too. 

“All of this was done with the power of advocating,” she said. “It shows me that I have potential.”

(VISIT HERE TO READ A 2024 UPDATE FROM MIGUEL)

Talk even briefly to Miguel, and you’ll quickly figure out that he’s a passionate learner with varied interests, Ivy League goals and a growth mindset.

Although he admits to being a procrastinator – a trait shared by none other than Leonardo da Vinci, he’s quick to point out – he’s improving: “Last year I didn’t procrastinate nearly as much as I did in middle school or my freshman year,” he said.

And this year, he just doesn’t have the time. 

An astronomy, law, history and political science enthusiast, Miguel’s academic load at HHS isn’t light: Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. history, AP psychology, AP English, AP computer science, Honors precalculus, and dual-enrollment (for college credit) anatomy and physiology.

Amid all the details, Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI) helps keep Miguel attuned to achieving his long-term goals. The nonprofit, which creates college opportunities for Latino high school students, has served more than 110 scholars since 2012 in Harrisonburg, Richmond and Winchester. In addition to offering a three-year program of college readiness, leadership development and community service, SLI awards scholarships and computer funds to its graduates, plus provides dual-enrollement tuition support. 

‘ONE OF THE FEW’

Most days after school, Miguel takes a break to watch Netflix before getting down to homework.

“It’s about trying as hard as I can,” he said. “If I can be the first in my family to attend an Ivy League university, I’ll go for it.”

That “go-for-it” attitude and his curiosity make Miguel remarkable, said the school system social studies coordinator and SLI founding board member Kirk Moyers. 

“He’s one of the few kids who will actually research something he’s interested in rather than ask the teacher for the answer,” he said. “Because of this, he has a deep knowledge about a variety of topics, and makes connections and analyzes the material at the level of someone far more experienced than a high schooler.”

ROOTED

A “Cuban Salvadoran American,” Miguel has been to Cuba several times to see his maternal grandfather, a “self-built” carpenter who’s old enough to remember the country before Castro’s revolution and who fed his own love of history as a library patron. Miguel’s mom studied to be a nurse but didn’t finish her degree before coming to the U.S. for economic reasons. She is currently an electric pallet jack operator in a poultry plant. 

Miguel hopes someday to also visit the Salvadoran town where his father, currently a chef at an Italian restaurant, lived until coming to the U.S. at age 14. Noel says that he tells of a volcano-heated river in his Salvadoran hometown that is hot enough to cook corn.

This international heritage gives Miguel unique perspective on the world, national identity and family relations.

“He is a bright young man with a keen sense of world politics and history,” said SLI program director and James Madison University professor Carlos Alemán. “Miguel is acutely aware of how the history of Cuban immigration in the U.S. is markedly different than that of other Latin American groups, and how too many people in the U.S. have very little understanding of that different history.”

SLI

“SLI has been a great opportunity for me,” Miguel said, in part because service projects – such as rejuvenating the courtyard garden at an elementary school last spring, supervising children’s activities at an international festival, and mentoring younger students – have helped him “become a better citizen.”

SLI has also equipped Miguel for higher education. Alemán, he said, “has done a great job of telling us how to prepare for our first year college” and connecting students to university resources. “He gives us advice from a professor’s point of view, which I really appreciate.”

It’s encouragement that Miguel has in turn begun passing on to his younger siblings, keeping tabs on his brother’s academics and helping him out when the subject matter is difficult. 

 “SLI has made me a more mature person overall,” Miguel said. “I definitely feel more focused.”

[Updated April 2024] By the time her family left Guatemala when she was eight years old, Sofía already knew what she wanted to do with her life: care for people. 

Today, Sofía is an experienced certified nursing assistant, a certified medical interpreter, and about to complete an accelerated nursing program. 

She’s made a life out of caring, a passion that began with caring for her ailing grandmother, who called Sofía “her doctor,” Sofía remembers. 

“It made me feel that I was doing something positive for someone,” she said. “Every time we have a loved one that is sick or struggling with something, we are to extend a hand and help them out with whatever is going on.”

But getting to where Sofía is now didn’t just happen. It took hard work, encouragement and support that included three years as one of the first scholars in the Scholars Latino Initiative (SLI) program at her high school – a program for which she later volunteered as a coordinator at her university. 

A nonprofit that creates college opportunities for first-generation Latino high school students, SLI has offered rigorous academic challenge, leadership development, supportive mentorships and scholarship awards since 2012.

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

Sofía’s family lived in multiple states but settled in time for her eighth grade year. During those years of change – adapting to new cultural surroundings, navigating bullying, not feeling like she belonged – she always told herself that if she could learn English, everything else would fall into place.

She knew there was an alternative to sticking with education: getting a job to help provide for her family. In Guatemala, after all, her mother had completed just one year of middle school, and her father high school.

They encouraged Sofía to pursue her goals even though doing so wasn’t always easy.

“They didn’t want my siblings and me to continue that cycle of just getting just a partial education and being stuck there,” she said. “We have to be better.”

She did master English, thanks to a personal determination that hasn’t gone unnoticed. Sofía is “quiet but tenacious,” said Andrea Meador Smith, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Shenandoah University. “Her persistence is evident in her studies, her devotion to her family, and her service commitments.”

ON THE SLI PATH

Sofía joined SLI when she was in tenth grade, and credits the program with showing her that attending college was a real possibility.

She was paired with a mentor, an acting major who Sofía said helped her overcome her terror of public speaking. SLI’s Early College program also helped Sofía develop her writing skills, connected her to volunteer work, and exposed her to college-level academics, since in the program her papers and presentations were graded by college professors. 

“SLI and my mentors enlightened me that I can go ahead and fulfill what my goals are, what my dreams are,” she said. “They kept me on that path.” 

Sofía seized that new sense of opportunity. She is, after all, “driven, collaborative, empathetic, independent and engaged,” said Bryan Pearce-Gonzales, member of the SLI board of directors and department chair and professor of Hispanic Studies at SU. He and other faculty have given Sofía a traditional SU label reserved for students who excel academically and socially across programs: “Superstar.”

AN ADVOCATE FOR OTHERS

But it hasn’t been enough for Sofía just to succeed. Her passion, after all, is caring for others. 

When she realized she wanted to pass on to younger SLI scholars what had made her own college experiences a reality, she approached Maggie McCampbell Lien, the director of the Mosaic Center for Diversity and former SLI program director at SU, to find out if she could help.

Now, as coordinator of SLI activities in her area, Sofía interviews mentor candidates and helps pair mentors and high school mentees. She also gives presentations – the very activity that once gave her panic attacks – to SLI scholars and their families about financial options for paying for college.

“Sofía is peacefully determined,” said one SLI program director. “As she studies and continues to work towards her goals, current SLI scholars are benefiting from her example and giving spirit.”

And she shares about her own experiences, participating as a speaker on various campus and community panels. 

“Sofía is the definition of resiliency,” said McCampbell Lien. “Every time she has faced a hurdle, she has been determined to overcome it.”