Cashing in on Scholar Dollar program

Dulce didn’t know what she was getting into.

The then-14-year-old had heard rumors about a program paying students to do well in school, but she wasn’t sure how that worked. She took advantage of it anyway, and four years later the 18-year-old is walking away with so much more than cash.

Dulce, a student at Newport Harbor High School, has been involved in Costa Mesa-based Save Our Youth’s Scholar Dollar program, earning $5,225 during high school and the same amount plus $500 for college.

“Scholar Dollar opened up opportunities for me to have money and spend money on myself and not be so dependent on my parents,” Dulce said.

Dulce, who came to America with her parents illegally when she was 4, had a lot going against her just to make it to her high school graduation, much less earning money for college. But the still-undocumented student, whose name was withheld to protect her identity, credits Save Our Youth for helping with both.

SOY is a violence prevention program that works with seventh- to 12th-graders on Costa Mesa’s West Side. The organization pays students for good grades and when they graduate, and the program matches the money they’ve already earned for college. This year the program gave away more than $165,000 to 39 students during its annual scholarship banquet Friday.

“We are not here for you guys to go to college,” said Jose Sanchez Uribe, SOY board member and alumni, during the banquet. “We are here for you guys to graduate from a four-year university.”

The bilingual event tried to prepare the fledgling adults for life after SOY and “the good, the bad and the ugly” of college. SOY Executive Director Trevor Murphy warned the students the state’s economic crisis has led to fewer classes and rising tuition cuts.

“What I ask of you seniors is to stay focused. There are rough waters ahead,” Murphy said.

Despite the sea of shrinking school budgets and programs, the organization was able to hand out more than four times as much money as it gave out two years ago.

The program, however, doesn’t just pay for A’s, but helps students achieve them with after-school tutoring. Dulce’s academic excellence has earned her admission to UC Riverside this fall. Her grades also won her a bevy of private scholarships.

“It feels good going to UCR and not having to worry about tuition and books and fees,” Dulce said. “I can really concentrate on academics.”

In addition to the $5,725 from SOY, she said she won more than $15,000 for tuition, including a $5,000 renewable scholarship.

The soon-to-be high school graduate is stuck when it comes to financial aid, because she doesn’t qualify for any. Dulce said she is an AB 540, or an undocumented student, and she eagerly talks about her plight. AB 540 is a state law passed in 2002 allowing some undocumented students to attend college without having to pay higher out-of-state tuition.

Dulce will be the third of the children in her family to attend college, a feat, she said, her father never even imagined.

The family emigrated from Mexico so the three children could get a better education.

What Dulce and her siblings have already achieved surpassed the hopes of her father.

“He never even dreamed of his kids going to college,” she said.

Looking back, Dulce said, she is grateful for the courage her parents had and doesn’t want it to be in vain.

“Going to college is in a way paying them back,” she said. “In a way it’s showing them it was worth coming over [here].”