$1M gift to give WSU students of color ‘opportunities they otherwise might not have’
A local couple is giving $1 million to Wichita State University to provide students of color “opportunities they otherwise might not have,” the university said Monday.
A little more than half of the gift — $520,000 — is earmarked for “high-impact” scholarships for 20 Hispanic and Black students annually for the next four years, the university said in a news release. The rest will help provide a host of services, including mentoring and tutoring for scholarship recipients and underwriting for their participation in WSU’s new Microenterprises Program, which seeks to keep business and entrepreneurial talent in the area.
It will also fund a visiting professor program to help WSU recruit more diverse staff and pay for a full-time diversity recruiter in the school’s admissions department “to boost enrollment of students of color,” WSU said in the release.
The money is being donated to the WSU Foundation, the university’s fundraising arm, by Wichita philanthropists Gene and Yolanda Camarena, who say their personal experiences in college helped them realize financial and cultural barriers many Black and Hispanic students face.
Yolanda Camarena is a WSU graduate who went on to earn a master’s degree in public policy and education from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Gene Camarena graduated from the University of Kansas before obtaining a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard.
The couple — owners of La Raza Pizza Inc, a Pizza Hut and Marriott franchisee that has ranked among the 150 largest Hispanic-owned companies in the country — has long sought to improve access to higher education for minority students.
“Our goal is to provide students of color a level pathway to a college degree and the ability to participate equally in all the opportunities our country has to offer,” Yolanda Camarena, who serves on the Kansas Hispanic Education and Development Foundation’s board of directors, said in a prepared statement.
“We firmly believe that a more diverse and inclusive environment at Wichita State will be beneficial to all students as they learn, live and work together on a campus that mirrors the workplaces and communities that they will become a part of.”
WSU, which unveiled the gift at a Monday news conference, has pledged to match the investment.
“I appreciate the strong endorsement of Gene and Yolanda Camarena of our vision to make the college experience more affordable and inclusive for all students,” WSU President Jay Golden said in the news release.
“Their generous gift in money, time and ideas exemplifies the strong partnership our university continues to have with our diverse community and our state.”
Recipients of the WSU scholarships created by the Camarenas’ gift will be known as Shocker Adelante Scholars, which means “to move forward” or “to get ahead” in Spanish.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that the $1 million donation was made to the WSU Foundation, Wichita State’s fundraising arm, not directly to the school.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 12:20 PM.
