Tequio Scholarship Application Now Open

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Tequio Scholarship Program Launches its Ninth Year!

The Tequio Scholarship Committee of the Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP)  publicly announces the release of their college scholarship application, supporting Indigenous migrant youth in Ventura and Santa Barbara County. Scholarship funds raised by community donors will be supplemented by funding from Edison International to support Indigenous students in Ventura and Santa Barbara County especially to students pursuing careers in the “STEM” fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. 

There are approximately 25,000 Indigenous Mexicans in Ventura County and 29,000 Indigenous Mexicans in Santa Barbara County. High school age Indigenous youth face tremendous barriers to academic success. Parents are often fluent only in their native language of Mixteco or Zapoteco and have limited literacy in any language. This language barrier consequently means a disconnect from their children’s education.  Most Indigenous parents are employed in the berry row crop industry, earning an average household income of $15,000 to $20,000 per year.  Many families migrate for many months during the academic year following the crop cycle. Further, farmworker youth often encounter pressure to drop out of school to earn money to support their families. 

MICOP began the Tequio Scholarship Fund in 2012 to inspire and encourage academic success in the Indigenous community. The fund will provide individual grants to college students from Ventura and Santa Barbara County who are of Indigenous Mexican roots.  Grants are distributed annually to applicants selected by the Tequio Scholarship Committee composed of MICOP Board Members and community educators.  

The fund seeks highly motivated applicants attending or planning to attend college or university in fall, 2020. Applicants are not required to be US citizens. Undocumented youth are encouraged to apply.  Preference is given to students who have participated in MICOP’s Tequio Youth Group and undertake community service. 

To apply, students may download the application from the MICOP website, https://mixteco.org/programs/tequioscholarship/.  The application is due by 5:00pm PST on May 14th, 2021.  Recipients will be notified in the first week of June and will be recognized during MICOP’s annual Night in Oaxaca celebration in August 2021.   

We welcome donations to make future scholarship assistance possible.  To donate to the fund, please send checks to “MICOP” with “Tequio Scholarship Fund” in the memo, to P.O. Box 20543, Oxnard, CA 93034, or make a donation online at www.mixteco.org/donate and select “Tequio Scholarship” under “Programs and Campaigns.”  

MICOP and the Tequio Fund Scholarship Committee would like to extend gratitude to the following sponsors for their support of this year’s Tequio Scholarship Fund: 

  • Padrino Sponsor: Edison International 
  • Compadre Sponsors: County of Ventura, Peter O’Keeffe & Sandra Young

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