P&G’s ‘Avanzando con tu Familia’ Launches For 3rd Year.

The Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), the nation’s leading organization supporting Hispanic higher education, announced that it will partner once again with P&G’s Avanzando con tu Familia community outreach program to provide scholarships to qualified Hispanic students throughout the U.S., and educational and community support to promote higher education among Hispanics.

Now in its third year, the HSF and Avanzando con tu familia partnership has provided more than 60 one-year scholarships to Latino students, helped HSF establish regional outreach offices near large Hispanic population centers, and funded Town Hall meetings in seven cities that helped to educate over 3,500 Latino students and their families about the college application process and financial aid options.

“In the Latino community we don’t have a history of participation in higher education; because of that, what many people take for granted can be a daunting challenge for Latino students,” said Sara Martinez Tucker, President and CEO of HSF. “Thanks to our partnership with Procter & Gamble, more graduating high school students and their parents now have an understanding of what it takes to navigate the college enrollment process and more Latino students have been able to afford college.”

According to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center, Latinos receive the lowest average amount of financial aid awarded—by type and source of aid—of any ethnic group. The Pew study also indicated that U.S.-born children of Hispanic immigrants are nearly as likely as whites to enroll in college, but less than half as likely to earn bachelor’s degrees. This “drop out” trend is largely attributed to lack of financial resources and to the need of a support network that encourages educational advancement.

A scholarship from HSF can go a long way towards surmounting these barriers, as exemplified by Dr. Carolina Reyes, a 2003 HSF Hall of Fame honoree who is featured in this summer’s issue of the Avanzando con tu Familia magazine“On one side, it helped me economically because my family couldn’t,” recalls Reyes, who is now a physician at the prestigious Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and an assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “But also, it was very symbolic because in a university where I felt isolated, I could count on an extended community that supported me.”

In addition to providing scholarships and underwriting Town Hall meetings, this year, through Avanzando Con Tu Familia, P&G is also enlisting several of its retail partners across the country that will in turn provide more scholarships and sponsor other Town Hall meetings in Texas, Florida and New York. For its part, P&G is also co-sponsoring the new College Roadmap, a resource for students who are preparing to enter college that was developed by the HSF and the Princeton Review. To date, P&G has contributed more than $1 million to HSF in support of its commitment to help educate future Hispanic leaders.

For the last 29 years P&G has partnered with HSF, the largest organization devoted to awarding university scholarships to U.S. Hispanics. This year P&G will once again contribute 10 cents to HSF*, up to $100,000, with each purchase of select P&G products using specially marked HSF/Avanzando coupons. The promotion will run through December 31, 2004.

Participating P&G products in the Avanzando con Tu Familia program includes: Crest, Downy, Tide, Gain, Dawn, Pantene, Bounty, Charmin, Head & Shoulders, Pampers and Iams. Special Avanzando con tu Familia coupons are being distributed in the fall edition of Avanzando magazine, which is delivered to more than one million Hispanic households throughout the U.S., as well as through Brand Saver coupons distributed via newspapers to more than eleven million readers.

“At a time when Hispanics account for one of four new workers entering the labor force it is evident that education remains critical to the success of Hispanics today,” said Graciela Eleta, vice president and general manager of P&G’s multicultural business development organization.
“Through our partnership with HSF, P&G is committed to broadening the possibilities of economic prosperity for Hispanics.”

For more information at http://www.hsf.net.