College Board & Telemundo award College Scholarships

The College Board and NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises announced last week on Telemundo’s national morning show Hoy Dia the scholarship recipients of this year’s College Board and Telemundo Academy Triunfadores campaign designed to guide Spanish-speaking families through the college planning process. Students earned opportunities for scholarships by completing any or all of a series of key college planning steps through BigFuture, the College Board’s free college planning tool.

Two students, Melody Chaclon from Cathedral High School in Cathedral City, CA and Eduardo Ceja from Memorial High School in Port Arthur, TX, each received a $40,000 scholarship for their efforts to plan and pay for college.

“My parents always supported my dream to go to college, but couldn’t afford to pay for college, so my original plan was to hopefully earn scholarships, and maybe even get a job” said Melody Chaclon, who hopes to study Bioengineering. “This is an opportunity of a lifetime, that I intend on seeing through for myself, but also for my parents who have sacrificed so much.”

“The easiest thing for me was deciding what I wanted to do and building a list of schools that interested me, but the hardest was definitely thinking how I was going to pay for it all,” said Eduardo Ceja, who hopes to go into Engineering. “Planning for college always felt a little strange for me, given that my parents never went. It was strange but not something I feared because I always knew it was what I wanted to.”

The College Board’s scholarship program doesn’t require an essay or an application, and it doesn’t have a minimum GPA or SAT score requirement. Rather, it rewards students’ actions on their way to college, making it open to all students. The sooner students start and the more steps they complete, the more chances they’ll have to earn a scholarship. Actions a student can take using the BigFuture planning tool include, building a list of colleges, practicing for the SAT on Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy®, and completing the FAFSA.

“Together with Telemundo, we want to congratulate all the students who have shown that they are willing to work hard on their path to college,” Tarlin Ray, College Board senior vice president of BigFuture. “We’ve integrated these scholarship steps into BigFuture so every student—no matter where they are on their journey to college—can take the small actions that Melody and Eduardo have taken to raise their hands and earn themselves a big future.”

The program focuses on the steps students need to take to make it to college, helping them navigate the complex college planning process. Forty additional students earned $500 scholarships for completing individual college planning steps through the College Board and Telemundo Triunfadores campaign. All of the winners qualified for College Board fee-wavers or reported an annual family income less than $60,000.

“As we continue to strengthen our partnership with the College Board, it gives us great joy to celebrate the winners of our Triunfadores scholarship program,” said Christina Kolbjornsen, Senior Vice President, Corporate and External Affairs, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises. “We are honored to be able to support their continued efforts in pursuing a higher education degree and proud to be part of the impact that college will bring to their lives.”

These scholarships help students offset the expenses associated with attending college. Scholarship recipients will indicate the institution where they plan to enroll the coming fall, and College Board will disburse the money directly to the college or university where the student enrolls.

Most college students report improved job prospects and financial security as a primary reason for college attendance. According to the Education Pays 2019 report, bachelor’s degree recipients age 25 working full time earned nearly $25,000 more than those of high school graduates. Having a college degree is also associated with a healthier lifestyle, social mobility, and community involvement.

Telemundo Academy Triunfadores is part of Telemundo’s multimedia academic program designed to develop new talent pursuing careers in the media industry, which lives under the umbrella of Telemundo’s award-winning corporate social responsibility platform El Poder en Ti (The Power in You). For more information on Telemundo Academy visit telemundo.com/collegeboard and telemundo.com/el-poder-en-ti/telemundo-academy and/or connect with Telemundo on Facebook and Twitter, or visit us at telemundo.com and YouTube.