A blockbuster HOLA festival last summer is helping a community of students at Ivy Tech pay for schooling through a grant program announced Tuesday.
The annual HOLA festival at Bosse Field has helped several Latino owned businesses get started in the past few years. Now, because of a big year in 2021, they’re branching out into scholarships.
The HOLA grant and a matching amount, will make $10,000 available to students who are not U.S. citizens and therefore, don’t qualify for federal student aid.
Ivy Tech Evansville Chancellor Daniela Vidal says, for example, the school has students from Venezuela, who are in the U.S. legally because of violence and poverty in that country, but they’re not U.S. citizens. Vidal says the scholarship fund will fill an urgent need.
“They have the ability to pay some, but they’re short $500. And so, can you imagine not being able to graduate because you’re short $500?”
HOLA board president Brant Flores says they chose Ivy Tech for the scholarships because of its low tuition costs. He says he hopes to make the program an annual benefit of the festival.
