UCSC Review Winter 1997

Scholarship fund makes a difference

Dana Wespiser has a special connection to the Alumni Association. Like eight other financially needy undergraduates, last fall Wespiser received a $2,500 scholarship funded by the Alumni Association Scholarship Fund. "The scholarship made a difference to me financially and personally," Wespiser says. After graduation, instead of loan repayments, "I might be able to afford to buy my daughter a new coat, not a used one, or enroll her in gymnastics classes, things that other people just take for granted."

Pursuing her educational goals has not been easy for Wespiser, a single mother who receives no child support. "As an AFDC recipient, I'm always looking back at the media stereotypes of welfare moms," she says. "Winning this scholarship lets me know that not everybody has that image." Her hard work has paid off with an A.A. degree in history from De Anza College, membership in the college's honor society, and admission to the university.

At UCSC, Wespiser has a double major in history and literature, focusing on Spanish history, literature, and culture. She has received encouragement from her professors for her work, in particular, her study of Sephardic Jewry and Spanish culture, which has led her to the fascinating assertion that a clandestine Passover seder may be depicted in Cervantes's Don Quixote.

As she mulls over her future and considers graduate school, Wespiser appreciates the alumni whose scholarship support "gave me a buoyancy I really needed."

Donations to the Alumni Association Scholarship Fund build an endowment for future generations of financially needy students like Wespiser. Thirty-three AASF awards, totaling more than $60,000, have already been made, and over $240,000 has been contributed by alumni and other campus friends. Checks payable to the UCSC Foundation with a notation "Alumni Association Scholarship Fund" are gratefully accepted by University Advancement at the Carriage House, UCSC, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077.