By Ruth Steinhardt
Anahi Hurtado, a senior in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences’ School of Media and Public Affairs, immigrated to Miami from Buenos Aires as a small child. She remembered the difficulty and perplexity of her early life, her homesickness and feelings of isolation—from not knowing the words during a singalong of “Wheels on the Bus” to being unable to ask for help opening a water bottle.
Over time, however, Ms. Hurtado began to shine academically in her second language. She began tutoring recent immigrants in her class during recess. By high school, the project made her a finalist for the Miami Herald’s Silver Knight award. Through this experience, she found a passion for politics and activism that brought her to GW.
Her financial aid package, including a Schneider-Taylor Family Endowed Scholarship and a work-study program at GW Hillel, made that journey possible.
“Financial aid is more than just the funding I needed to come here and realize my dream,” she said. “It’s hard to pick just one example of how scholarships shaped my GW experience, because they are what made my GW experience possible in the first place.”
Ms. Hurtado spoke at GW’s annual Power & Promise Scholarships and Fellowships Dinner Friday night, where GW students and the donors that have supported their education met and shared stories at dinner tables and in the reception’s scholarship donor and student beneficiary match lounge.
Victoria Dalcourt Angle, a third-year student at GW Law, and Steven Schooner, the Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law, were two such attendees. Ms. Dalcourt Angle has been Mr. Schooner’s student for two semesters, but the two also share another educational connection: Ms. Dalcourt Angle is able to attend law school thanks in part to the scholarship established in honor of Mr. Schooner’s father, a 1974 alumnus of the GW School of Business. She is the sixth recipient of the Murray J. Schooner, M.A. '74, Endowed Government Procurement Law Scholarship Fund.
Ms. Dalcourt Angle said her classes with Mr. Schooner prepared her for her associate position in the government contracts practice group of Morrison & Foerster, while the scholarship helped her succeed and connected her with colleagues and mentors.
“I feel very fortunate to be part of a long line of Schooner scholars,” she said. “Professor Schooner has been a great mentor to me.”
Mr. Schooner, L.L.M. '89, said meeting with students who benefit from scholarships is a highlight of the event. “One of the reasons I love the Power & Promise dinner so much is that it’s wonderful to have the opportunity to see tangible results,” he said. “We can say, ‘Pay it forward,’ but to see that in action is beautiful.”
GW President Thomas LeBlanc, attending his second Power & Promise dinner, agreed.
“This is one of my favorite events of the year,” Dr. LeBlanc said. “As a student, I attended college on scholarship, and I know the way scholarships change lives. So to bring together the donors who are really changing a life and the recipient of that scholarship reminds me of why we’re all in higher education.”
Dr. LeBlanc and Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Donna Arbide gave candid assessments of the importance of philanthropy to GW and the difficulty for families in bridging financial gaps.
“This event is an opportunity to show our community how philanthropic dollars can change lives,” Ms. Arbide said.
Dr. LeBlanc said the university is “committed to recruiting and enrolling a diverse group of exceptional students.”
“As we attract a broader pool of students from across the country and around the world,” he said, “the amount of financial aid required to make a GW education realistic for as many of them as possible is far greater than what our current resources allow.”