For the second year, the Oregon College Savings Plan is helping standout diverse and underrepresented Oregon students to pursue their education and career dreams, via a multi-year scholarship.

In Oregon and across the country, students from underrepresented communities historically have faced disproportionate obstacles to university degrees and job training opportunities.

The Treasury-managed savings program, which reduces barriers by making it more financially feasible to seek higher education, recently announced this year’s recipient of its Diversity in Leadership Scholarship.

Miriam Qudoos plans to pursue a career in Psychiatry and will study Psychology on the Pre-Med track at Portland State University.

“The Oregon College Savings Plan scholarship will enable me to become the first independent female in my family line to finish a college degree and work towards medical school,” she said. “My dream for the future is to build bridges between people of different backgrounds with my work, to show that our humanity can connect and tap into extraordinary feats of achievements when we learn how to collaborate.”

New scholarship recipients are selected each year, with awardees receiving $10,000 for their freshman year and $5,000 for each of the next three years of full-time enrollment, or until completion of a degree (whichever comes earlier). When fully rolled out, the program is anticipated to fund as much as $50,000 in scholarships each year, divided among as many as eight students.

There are currently three students receiving scholarship funding. One of the two 2021 awardees, Monserrat Beltran Juarez, is set to begin her first year at the University of Portland, after deferring her award last year. Monserrat will study Nursing, with plans to become a registered nurse.

“I am the daughter of two Mexican immigrants, who are agricultural workers,” said scholarship awardee Monserrat Beltran Juarez. “I will be the first person in my family to graduate high school and pursue a college education. I want my parents to see that each hour of their exhausting work has been worth it. I want to show my younger sister that life outside of the orchards is possible. I know my eight-year-old self—the little girl who was beginning to learn English after living in Mexico for two years—would be so amazed at how far she has come.”

“We are excited to welcome these accomplished Oregonians to the group of students being funded by our Diversity in Leadership Scholarship,” said Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read. “This scholarship is an investment, aimed at making Oregon’s future more inclusive, and we’re gratified to support the education journeys of promising students such as Miriam and Monserrat. We all have a stake in their success and hope they will continue to contribute to Oregon’s future.”

The Diversity in Leadership Scholarship awards are being administered through the Oregon Community Foundation’s (OCF) scholarship program—one of the largest of its kind in the country. Awards may be used to attend a range of Oregon institutions, including apprenticeship providers

The application cycle opens in early November each year, with a deadline of early March, for the following academic year.